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COPYRIGHT DEPOSITS 




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ORATION AT 
VALLEY FORGE 

June 19, 1878 

The One Hundredth Anniversary of the Departure of the 
Army of the Revolution from Winter Quarters at that Place 



HENRY ARMITT BROWN 

WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
AND EXPLANATORY NOTES 



BV 

A. J. DEMAREST, A. M., 

Superintendent of Public Schools, Hoboken, N. J. 



t-^ 



PHILADELPHIA: 

CHRISTOPHER SOWER COMPANY 

124 N. Eighteenth Street 



^- .v 



MS 



Copyright, 1911, by 
Christopher Sower Company 



©CI.A300353 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Prefatory Note to the Teacher 5 

Valley Forge : An Oration 11 

The Introduction 11 

The Occupation of Philadelphia 20 

The March to Valley Forge 30 

The Encampment 34 

The Sufferings of the Soldiers 42 

Holy Ground 55 

The Troops and their Leaders 56 

Washington at Valley Forge 65 

Steuben and Franklin 67 

The Dawn at Last 73 

The Glory of Valley Forge 79 

Valley Forge and Waterloo 82 

The Spirit of Liberty 86 

The New Century 90 

3 



4 CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Biographical Sketch 97 

I. The Man — Henry Armitt Brown 97 

His Childhood and Early Youth 98 

His College Life 99 

A Public Discovery 100 

As an Orator 102 

His Methods 102 

His Style 102 

A Man Among Men " 103 

II. The Place— Valley Forge 103 

HI. The Occasion — The Valley Forge Centennial 

Celebration 112 

Suggestive Questions 114 



PREFATORY NOTE TO THE TEACHER 



Before the reading of this oration is taken up for class work, 
the teacher should make a careful study of that period of our 
history known as the ''Formation of the Nation," which includes 
the controversy with England, resistance leading to independence, 
and the struggle for independence, in order to give a correct 
interpretation of this great masterpiece. While this oration 
will appeal to the ordinary reader, yet for a study of it, such as 
may be required for the class-room, some preliminary work is 
essential. This critical study should be of a two-fold character: 
first, the historical foundations upon which the orator built his 
framework; second, references to orations of others, similar in 
character, with which portions of this oration may be compared 
and contrasted. 

Outline for Class Reading 

The appreciation of a classic improves with each reading, and 
this oration should be read by the class at least three times. 

First Reading 

The first step in the reading of any classic is to read it as a 
whole, for the purpose of permitting the student to get the thread 
of the discourse. This can best be done by a single rapid reading. 
In no sense should this reading be used as a formal reading lesson. 
We shall make an inevitable failure if we attempt to teach reading 
in connection with literary appreciation of a classic. The first 
lessons, then, should require merely an intelligent reading. 
It should be read aloud in a pleasing manner, to get a good under- 

5 



6 PREFATORY NOTE TO THE TEACHER 

standing of the discourse. Do not stop to look up words or to 
refer to the notes. Each day's reading should be so planned that 
it will stop at some interesting place, in order to keep up sus- 
tained interest on the part of the class. When we have read 
and have grasped the oration as a whole, we are ready for the 
second reading. 

Second Reading 

In reading this oration a second time, we should aim to study 
the mechanical means by which the orator secured his effects. 
In this detailed study the teacher should do all the reading, 
planning each day's lesson so that it will stop at some logical 
place in the discourse. During the second reading the student 
should form clear conceptions of — 

(a) The Characters. — Are the descriptions of the characters 
vivid? Can you see them? Can you call up a clear mental 
picture of them? Does Mr. Brown succeed in presenting a 
complete picture of the various men — are they real to you? 
How and why came Washington and his army to Valley Forge? 
Did he come flushed with the triumph of victory? Did he 
bring with him a conquered army? Where was Howe at this 
time? Contrast the Revolutionary army at Valley Forge — 
poverty and patriotism, rags and resolution, bold, determined 
men writing upon the snows and ice of winter as their parchment 
in their own blood, their deeds of valor and renown — with the 
British army in Philadelphia, flushed with victory, fearless of 
defeat, wearing the winter away with feasting and revelry. 

Call the roll of the heroes of Valley Forge, and comment 
upon the services rendered by each — George Washington, 
Marquis de Lafayette, Baron Steuben, Baron de Kalb, Count 
Pulaski, General Knox, Light Horse Harry Lee, Generals Sullivan, 
Wayne, Greene, Armstrong, Warren, and Hamilton. Emphasize 
the fact that there is another class of heroes, worthy of all honor 
and praise — not the men who bore commissions and wore epau- 
lets — the private soldiers, the rank and file, the noble men who 



PREFATORY NOTE TO THE TEACHER 7 

died unknown to fame, who sleep in unmarked graves. Does 
the author reveal himself in his work? Can you infer his likes 
and dislikes? his favorite study? his favorite books? 

(b) The Setting.— Where is the scene laid? At what time of 
the year? Is the encampment vividly portrayed? Is there 
enough description to give a clear idea of the situation? Select 
the best descriptive passages. Can you see the encamped sol- 
diers, the fortifications, the entrenchments, the log huts the 
shoeless soldiers, the hospitals, the frozen ground, the cheerless 
campfires, blood stains upon the frozen ground, and the graves 
of the unknown dead? Lay stress upon the fact that, notwith- 
standmg the sufferings and privations endured by these devoted 
troops, month after month, harassed by the storms of one of the 
severest winters ever known in that region, the love of country 
the hope of victory, and an abiding confidence in their great 
leader sustamed them in the darkest period of their struggle for 
liberty. Do the descriptions of nature surpass the delineations 
of personal portraits? 

(c) The Structure of the Oration.— Every well-constructed 
oration has an introduction. Is the introduction of this oration 
clearly marked? Where does it end? What is the purpose 
of the mtroduction? Does it properly introduce the subject? 
Does It arouse an interest in the subject? The body or framework 
of an oration is called the discourse or discussion. What is the 
central theme of the discussion? State it clearly in a sentence. 
Is there more than one theme? If so, are they closely related? 
Does the oration possess unity? Are there any digressions? 
Do these digressions violate the unity of the oration? Does 
Mr. Brown appeal to the intellect or to the emotional nature of 
his audience or to both? The conclusion of an essay or oration is 
called the peroration. The purpose of the peroration is to sum up 
the mam pomts of the discussion; to restate some points with em- 
phasis; or to make a favorable impression at the conclusion. 
Where does the peroration begin? Does it serve the purpose or 
purposes of a peroration? Is the style different from the intro- 
duction or the discussion? 



8 PREFATORY NOTE TO THE TEACHER 

(d) The Style. — Select words that are strong and terse: ex- 
pressions that are highly polished or ornamental. Read the best 
passages aloud and note the rhythm of the sentences. Does 
it possess individuality? Is the work characterized by accuracy 
of statement? sincerity? sympathetic appreciation? keen analysis? 
Of the three chief qualities of style — clearness, force, and beauty — 
which is most marked here? Are the sentences clear, short, 
long, or of average length? Are the paragraphs short, medium, or 
long? Does he use words precisely? Which of the following 
words best describe his diction: clear, simple, polished, ornate, 
terse, polished, idiomatic, obscure, colloquial, verbose? 

(e) Memory Gems. — The pupils should be encouraged to select 
choice passages for memorization and to state their reasons for 
their selection. 

(f) Collateral Reading. — Select another oration and compare it 
with this one in the chief points of the outline. Note particularly 
points in which there is a marked difference. To what is this 
difference due — the time, the subject, or to the men themselves? 
The number of great orators whose orations survive as literature 
is very limited. Burke, Pitt, Sheridan, Fox, Calhoun, Clay, 
Webster, Everett, Lincoln, Sumner, Phillips, and Grady are 
among the most distinguished. 

(g) Composition and Outline Work. — Brief compositions may 
be written upon selected topics. The following list of composition 
subjects may be profitably used in connection with the study of 
the oration: 

a. Lafayette, the Lover of Liberty. 

b. The French AlUance. 

c. First Steps toward Independence. 

d. The Battlefields of Pennsylvania. 

e. The Glory of Valley Forge. 

f. Valley Forge vs. Waterloo. 

g. The Military Services of Baron Steuben. 
h. George Washington at Valley Forge. 

i. The Many-sided Franklin. 

j. Alexander Hamilton vs. Aaron Burr. 



PREFATORY NOTE TO THE TEACHER 9 

k. America One Hundred Years Ago. 

1. Was the Execution of Major Andre justifiable? 

Third Reading 

This reading should be free from all criticism, and should be 
given for the purpose of permitting the student to enjoy the 
revealed beauty of the oration. 



VALLEY FORGE 

An Oration Delivered on the Hundredth Anni= 
versary of the Departure of the Army of the 
Revolution from that Place. 

BY HENRY ARMITT BROWN i 



It is an honor to be here to-day. It is a privilege 
to behold this anniversary. This unusual spectacle, 
these solemn services, these flags and decorations, this 
tuneful choir, this military array, this distinguished 
company, this multitude darkening all the hill-side, 
proclaim the general interest and attest its magnitude. 
And it is proper to commemorate this time. One 
hundred years ago this country was the scene of extra- 
ordinary events and very honorable actions. We feel 
the influence of them in our institutions and our daily 
lives, and it is both natural and right for us to seek, by 
some means, to mark their hundredth anniversaries. 

Why is it an honor to be here to-day? Why a privilege? 
Why should this event be commemorated? In what way do we 
feel the influence of these extraordinary events in our institutions 
and in our daily lives? Why preserve the memory of other years? 
Why should these battles be named and more highly honored? 

^ See sketch, page 97. 
11 



12 VALLEY FORGE 

Those moments are passing quickly. Lexington, 
Bunker Hill, Germantown, Saratoga, have gone by 
already. Monmouth, Stony Point, Eutaw, and York- 
town are close at hand. It is eminently fit that we 
should gather here. 

I cannot add to what has already been said about 
this place. The deeds which have made it famous 
have passed into history. The page on which they are 
recorded is written. We can neither add to it nor take 
away. The heroic dead who suffered here are far 
beyond our reach. No human eulogy can make their 
glory greater, no failure to do them justice make it less. 
Theirs is a perfect fame, — safe, certain, and complete. 
Their trials here secured the happiness of a continent; 
their labors have borne fruit in the free institutions 
of a powerful nation; their examples give hope to every 
race and clime ; their names live on the lips of a grateful 

The battle of Lexington was fought April 19, 1775; Bunker 
Hill, June 17, 1775; Germantown, October 4, 1777; Saratoga 
(surrender), October 17, 1777; Monmouth, June 28, 1778; Stony 
Point, July 16, 1779; Eutaw, September 8, 1781; Yorktown, 
October 19, 1781. 

Why cannot the orator add to what has already been said 
about Valley Forge? Name the deeds that have made this place 
famous. In this connection, emphasize the fact that "the path 
of glory leads but to the grave." Why can no human eulogy 
make their glory greater? In what respect is theirs a perfect 
fame? Recount what has been accomplished by their trials, 
their labors, and their examples. Why should their names 
live on the lips of a grateful people? Why should their memories 
be cherished? What is the purpose of this anniversary? What 
is the spirit appropriate to the hour? 



14 VALLEY FORGE 

people; their memory is cherished in their children's 
hearts, and shall endure forever. It is not for their 
sakes, then, but for our own, that we have assembled 
here to-day. This anniversary, if I understand it 
right, has a purpose of its own. It is duty that has 
brought us here. The spirit appropriate to this hour 
is one of humility rather than of pride, of reverence 
rather than of exultation. We come, it is true, the 
representatives of forty millions of free men by ways our 
fathers never dreamed of, from regions of which they 
never heard. We come in the midst of plenty, under 
a sky of peace, power in our right hand and the keys of 
knowledge in our left. But we are here to learn rather 

What does Mr. Brown mean by the following expressions: 
"by ways our fathers never dreamed of ," " in the midst of plenty," 
"under a sky of peace," "power in our right hand," "the keys of 
knowledge in our left"? In the judgment of Mr. Brown, what 
are the purposes of the celebration? What are the sources of 
our country's greatness? What is the meaning of this anni- 
versary? To what olden time does the orator refer? What is 
an inspiration? Why cannot the orator do justice to his theme? 
Name the lessons to be pointed out to future generations. 

Name the introduction to this oration. Compare this intro- 
duction with the introduction to Webster's Bunker Hill Monu- 
ment Oration; Lincoln's Gettysburg Oration. 

Does this introduction prepare the way for the discussion? 
Does it serve to arouse an interest in the subject? Does it 
indicate the manner in which the subject is to be treated? What 
purpose or purposes does the introduction accomplish? On 
what subjects are orations usually delivered? An orator always 
has some definite aim: what is the aim in this oration? State 
in your own language the purpose of an introduction or exordium. 



VALLEY FORGE 15 

than to teach; to worship, not to glorify. We come to 
contemplate the sources of our country's greatness; 
to commune with the honored past; to remind ourselves 
and show our children that joy can come out of sorrow, 
happiness out of suffering, light out of darkness, life 
out of death. 

Such is the meaning of this anniversary. I cannot 
do it justice. Would that there could come to some one 
in this multitude a tongue of fire, — an inspiration born 
of the time itself, that, standing in this place and speak- 
ing with the voice of olden time, he might tell us in 
fitting language of our fathers! But it cannot be. 
Not even now. Not even here. Perhaps we do not 
need it. Some of us bear their blood, and all alike 
enjoy the happiness their valor and endurance won. 
And if my voice be feeble, we have but to look around. 
The hills that saw them suffer look down on us; the 
ground that thrilled beneath their feet we tread to-day; 
their unmarked graves still lie in yonder field; the breast- 
works which they built to shelter them surround us 
here! Dumb witnesses of the heroic past, ye need no 
tongues! Face to face with you we see it all; — this soft 
breeze changes to an icy blast; these trees drop the 
glory of the summer, and the earth beneath our feet 
is wrapped in snow. Beside us is a village of log huts; 

The dimensions of each hut were fourteen by sixteen feet, with 
chimney, fireplace, and door, facing upon company streets. 
Quarters for field and staff officers were erected in rear of the line 
of troops. The hills were made bare of timber in completing the 
shelter necessary for men and animals. 



16 VALLEY FORGE 

along that ridge smoulder the fires of the camp. The 
sun has sunk, the stars glitter in the inky sky, the camp 
is hushed, the fires are out, the night is still. All are 
in slumber save when a lamp glimmers in a cottage 
window, and a passing shadow shows a tall figure pacing 
to and fro. The cold silence is unbroken, save when 
on yonder rampart, crunching the crisp snow with 
wounded feet, a ragged sentinel keeps watch for Liberty ! 
The close of 1777 marked the gloomiest period of the 
Revolution. The early enthusiasm of the struggle had 
passed away. The doubts which the first excitements 
banished had returned. The novelty of war had gone, 
and its terrors become awfully familiar. Fire and sword 
had devastated some of the best parts of the country, 
its cities were half ruined, its fields laid waste, its re- 



in which line does the author foreshadow the general trend of 
his oration? State in your own language why the close of 1777 
marked the gloomiest period of the Revolution. 

"At no period of the war," writes Chief- justice Marshall, 
"had the American army been reduced to a situation of greater 
peril than during the winter at Valley Forge. More .than once 
they were absolutely without food. Even while their condition 
was less desperate in this respect, their stock of provisions was 
so scanty that there was seldom at any time in the stores a quan- 
tity sufficient for the use of the troops for a week. The returns 
on the first of February exhibit the astonishing number of three 
thousand nine hundred and eighty-nine men in camp unfit for 
duty for want of clothes. Of this number, scarcely a man had a 
pair of shoes. Although the total of the army exceeded seven- 
teen thousand men, the present effective rank and file amounted 
to only five thousand and twelve." 



VALLEY FORGE 17 

sources drained, its best blood poured out in sacrifice. 
The struggle now had become one of endurance, and 
while liberty and independence seemed as far off as 
ever, men began to appreciate the tremendous cost at 
which they were to be purchased. The capture ol 
Burgoyne had, after all, been only a temporary check 
to a powerful and still unexhausted enemy. Nor was 
its effect on the Americans themselves wholly beneficial. 
It had caused the North to relax, in a great measure, 
its activity and vigilance, and, combined with the 
immunity from invasion which the South had enjoyed, 



The capture of Burgoyne and his army of 6000 men was the 
most substantial triumph that the patriots had thus far gained 
in the war. It spread dismay in England. France acknowledged 
the independence of the United States, and the two nations pledged 
themselves to make a common cause against Great Britain. In 
addition, France agreed to send to our assistance a fleet of 16 
war vessels and an army of 4000 men. 

"A friend to whom Mr. Brown read this oration pointed out 
the fact that the capture of Burgoyne's army had been considered 
by all the latest and most accurate historians as the undoubted 
turning-point of the war, and that Creasy had included the battle 
of Bemus's Heights in the Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World. 
Mr. Brown said that, although it had undoubtedly proved to be 
so, he felt that in picturing the feeling of the day he was justified 
in using the impression left on the mind of so distinguished an 
actor as Lafayette; but that, when the oration was printed, he 
would add a note that would protect him from any criticism 
prompted by the supposition that, biased by local prejudice, he 
had spoken lightly of a brilliant event which occurred in a neigh- 
boring state in order to give prominence to the trials of Valley 
Forge." — J. M. Hoppin. 



18 VALLEY FORGE 

*'to lull asleep two-thirds of the continent." While a 
few hundred ill-armed, half-clad Americans guarded 
the Highlands of the Hudson, a well-equipped garrison, 
several thousand strong, lived in luxury in the city of 
New York. The British fleet watched with the eyes 
of Argus the rebel coast. Rhode Island lay undisputed 
in their hands; Georgia, Virginia, and the CaroKnas were 
open to their invasion, and as incapable of defence as 
Maryland had been when they landed in the Chesa- 
peake. Drawn upon for the army, the sparse popula- 
tion could not half till the soil, and the savings of labor- 
ious years had all been spent. While the miserable 
paper currency which Congress, with a fatal folly never 
to be absent from the counsels of men, continued to 
issue and call money, obeyed natural rather than arti- 
ficial laws, and fell four hundred per cent., coin flowed 
to Philadelphia and New York, and in spite of military 
orders and civil edicts, the scanty produce of the country 
followed it. Nor could the threatened penalty of 
death restrain the evil. Want began to be widely 

Argus: In the Greek legend Argus was the guardian of lo, 
slain by Hermes, and is said to have had a hundred eyes. 

The summer of 1780 was the gloomiest time in the whole course 
of the war. Because Congress could not tax the people, and could 
not get enough money from the states by asking for it, there was 
great difficulty in carrying on the war . Some money was borrowed 
from France and Holland, but Congress was obliged to issue its 
notes or promises to pay. Such notes, when issued by a govern- 
ment, are commonly called paper money. In the summer of 1780 
this money became worthless. It took $2000 in Continental cur- 
rency to buy an ordinary suit of clothes. 



VALLEY FORGE 19 

felt, and the frequent proclamations of the British, 
accompanied with Tory intrigue and abundant gold, 
to have effect. To some, even of the wisest, the case 
was desperate. Even the elements seemed to combine 
against the cause. A deluge prevented a battle at the 
Warren Tavern, a fog robbed Washington of victory at 
Germantown, and at last, while the fate of America' 
hung on the courage, the fortitude, and the patriotism 
of el even tho usand iiall-clothed, half-armed, hungry 
Contmentals.,. w ho . discomforted l3ut not discouraged, 
b,gaiiSIL..bu.t not disheartened, suffering but steadfast 
stilljjay on their firelocks on the frozen ridges of White- 
'. m arsh, a^ ritish army nineteen thousand five hundred 

Warren Tavern: A hamlet of Chester County, Pennsylvania, 
twelve miles W. S. W. of Norristown, where the two armies had 
an engagement September 16, 1777, with an American loss of 
about one hundred men. 

Germantown: When Washington learned that Howe had 
sent a detachment down the river to seize Forts Mercer and 
Mifflin he determined to crush the British at Germantown. In 
the early morning, October 4th, his army, in two columns, ad- 
vanced upon the village. The central column drove in the British 
outposts and was forcing back the British hne opposite. Greene 
was also the right flank, when an accident happened to destroy 
the whole plan. Stephen, who was upon the right of Greene's 
division, came on through the heavy fog, and, mistaking the 
American left-center for the enemy, charged upon them. This at 
once caused a panic, and the Americans retreated, Wayne pro- 
tecting the rear. 

Whitemarsh: A post-township of Montgomery County, 
Pennsylvania, about eleven miles northwest of Philadelphia. 
A battle occurred here between the main armies December 3, 1777. 



20 VALLEY FORGE 

f strong, of veteran troops, perfectly equipped, freshly 
recriiited^om Europe and flushed with recent victory, 
marched into winter-quarters in the ,chief city of the 

THE OCCUPATION OF PHILADELPHIA 
Philadelphia surely had never seen such gloomy days 
as those which preceded the entry of the British. 
On the 24th of August the American army marched 
through the length of Front Street; on the 25th the 
British landed at the head of Elk. Days of quiet 
anxiety ensued. On the 11th of September, as Tom 
Paine was writing a letter to Dr. Franklin, the sound of 
cannon in the southwest interrupted him. From 

Thomas Paine, generally styled ''Tom Paine," was secretary 
to the Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs. His 
services in the Revolution were of undoubted value. His pam- 
phlet, "Common Sense," is thought to have brought about the 
Declaration of Independence, and in his "Crisis" he wrote 
"These are the times that try men's souls." 

Benjamin Franklin at this time was in Europe. He was in 
London as agent for several of the colonies when the Revolution 
broke out, but he immediately returned to America. He was 
one of the committee of five to draft the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. He went to France in 1776 as ambassador, and it 
was his skilful hand that negotiated the treaty with that coun- 
try, without which the Revolution could hardly have succeeded. 
He assisted in making the treaty of peace with England in 1782, 
and took part in preparing the Constitution of the United States 
in 1787. He died in Philadelphia in 1790, aged eighty-four years. 
It was said of him that "he wrested the thunder from the sky 
and the scepter from tyrants." 



VALLEY FORGE 21 

morning until late in the afternoon people in the streets 
listened to the dull sound like distant thunder. About 
six o'clock it died away, and the straining ear could 
catch nothing but the soughing of the wind. With 
what anxiety men awaited, — with what suspense! 
The sun sank in the west, and the shadows crept over 
the little city. It was the universal hour for the evening 
meal, but who could go home to eat? Men gathered 
about the State House to talk, to conjecture, to con- 
sult together, and the women whispered in little groups 
at the doorsteps and craned their necks out of the 
darkened windows to look nervously up and down the 
street. About eight o'clock there was a little tumult 
near the Coffee House. The story spread that Wash- 
ington had gained a victory, and a few lads set up a 
cheer. But it was not traced to good authority, and 
disappointment followed. By nine in the evening the 
suspense was painful. Suddenly, far up Chestnut 
Street was heard the clatter of horses' feet. Some one 
was galloping hard. Down Chestnut, like an arrow, 
came at full speed a single horseman. He had ridden 

Name several historical events associated with the city of 
Philadelphia. Give reasons why Philadelphia had never seen 
such gloomy days as those which preceded the entry of the 
British. 

The battle of Brandy wine was fought September 11, 1777. 
On Howe's advance upon Philadelphia from the head of Chesa- 
peake Bay Washington took up a strong position at Brandywine 
Creek, though he had but 11,000 to oppose Howe's 18,000. The 
British were masters of the day. Washington retreated to 
Chester, 



22 VALLEY FORGE 

fast and his horse was splashed with foam. Hearts 
beat quickly as he dashed by; past Sixth Street, past 
the State House, past Fifth, and round the corner into 
Fourth. The crowd followed, and instantly packed 
around him as he drew rein at the Indian Queen. He 
threw a glance at the earnest faces that were turned 
toward his and spoke : '' A battle has been fought at the 
Birmingham Meeting-house, on the Brandywine; the 
army has been beaten; the French Marquis Lafayette 
shot through the leg. His Excellency has fallen back 

Marquis de (Marie Jean Paul, Joseph Roche Yves 
Gilbert du Motier) Lafayette, the distinguished soldier and 
statesman, was born at Chavagnac, France, in 1757. He died in 
Paris, at the age of seventy-seven years. As a boy he was page to 
the queen. He was but nineteen years old when he embraced the 
cause of liberty in America. Against the command of the King 
of France, he freighted a ship at his own expense and landed in 
America in 1777, to offer his services as a simple volunteer. He 
quickly won the favor of Congress and the life-long friendship of 
Washington. He was made a major-general, and showed consid- 
erable ability as a commander. He was wounded at Brandywine 
while rallying the retreating Americans. He was engaged in 
various battles during the Revolution, and it was largely through 
his efforts that the army of Rochambeau was sent to America 
in 1780. He assisted materially in cutting off the retreat of 
the British at Yorktown, and was present at the surrender of 
Cornwallis. For his services he was publicly thanked by 
Washington on the day after the surrender. He was one of the 
board of judges that tried Major Andre. He visited America in 
1784, and was everywhere received with great affection and res- 
pect. He again visited the United States in 1824 as the guest of 
the nation. Congress voted him $200,000 and a township of 
land for his losses and expenses in the Revolution. 



VALLEY FORGE 23 

to Chester; the road below is full of stragglers." And 
then the crowd scattered, each one to his home, but not 
to sleep. A few days followed, full of contradictory 
stories. The armies are manoeuvring on the Lancaster 
Road. Surely Washington will fight another battle. And 
then the news came and spread hke lightning, — Wayne 
has been surprised, and his brigade massacred at the 
Paoli, and the enemy are in full march for Philadelphia; 
the Whigs are leaving by hundreds ; the authorities are 

Chester, the oldest town in the state of Pennsylvania, was 
settled by the Swedes in 1643. The provincial assembly of 
William Penn's government was held here in 1682. 

Paoli, Pennsylvania: Here the British, under Major-general 
Grey, made a night attack upon Wayne's detachment September 
20,. 1777. Wayne held his position for an hour, saved his artil- 
lery, but lost 150 men. 

Anthony Wayne was one of the most active and conspicuous 
characters of the war. He was born in Chester County, Penn- 
sylvania, in 1745. His bravery gained him the sobriquet of 
"Mad Anthony," but he was discreet and cautious, quick in 
decision, and prompt in execution. His most notable exploit 
was the storming of Stony Point on the Hudson. This formid- 
able work he carried at midnight by a bayonet charge, the soldiers' 
guns being empty. For his brilliant achievement at Stony Point 
Congress gave him a vote of thanks and a gold medal. In his 
eventful life he was a farmer and land surveyor. He served in 
the Pennsylvania legislature, and was a member of the convention 
of his state that ratified the Constitution of the United States. 
He died in 1796, less than fifty-two years of age. 

Whigs : The name taken by the party in the colonies which 
furthered the Revolution, because their principles were but 
the application to America of those principles which the Whigs 
of England had secured through the Revolution of 1688. 



24 VALLEY FORGE 

going; the Congress have gone; the British have 
arrived at Germantown. Who can forget the day that 
followed? 

A sense of something dreadful about to happen hangs 
over the town. A third of the houses are shut and 
empty. Shops are unopened, and busy rumor flies 
about the streets. Early in the morning the sidewalks 
are filled with a quiet, anxious crowd. The women 
watch behind bowed windows with half-curious, half- 
frightened looks. The men, solemn and subdued, 
whisper in groups, " Will they come to-day?" " Are 
they here already? ' ' ' Will they treat us like a conquered 
people?" It was inevitable since the hot-bloods would 
have war. Sometimes the Tory can be detected by 
an exultant look, but the general sentiment is gloomy. 
The morning drags along. By ten o'clock Second 
Street, from Callowhill to Chestnut, is filled with old 
men and boys. There is hardly a young man to be 
seen. About eleven is heard the sound of approaching 
cavalry, and a squadron of dragoons comes galloping 
down the street, scattering the boys right and left. 
The crowd parts to let them by and melts together 
again. In a few minutes far up the street there is the 
faint sound of martial music and something moving 
that gutters in the sunlight. The crowd thickens and 
is full of hushed expectation. Presently one can see 
a red mass swaying to and fro. It becomes more and 

Explain the meaning of the following expressions: "hot- 
bloods," "hushed expectation," "red mass,^ "waves of scarlet, 
tipped with steel." 



VALLEY FORGE 25 

more distinct. Louder grows the music and the tramp 
of marching men as waves of scarlet, tipped with steel, 
come moving down the street. They are now but a 
square off, — their bayonets glancing in perfect line and 
steadily advancing to the music of " God save the 
King." 

These are the famous grenadiers. Their pointed 
caps of red, fronted with silver, their white leather 
leggings and short scarlet coats, trimmed with blue, 
make a magnificent display. They are perfectly 
equipped, and look well fed and hearty. Behind 
them are more cavalry. No, these must be officers. 
The first one is splendidly mounted and wears the 
uniform of a general. He is a stout man, with gray 
hair and a pleasant countenance, in spite of the squint 
of an eye which disfigures it. A whisper goes through 
the bystanders: '' It is Lord CornwalHs himself." 
A brilliant staff in various uniforms follows him and 
five men in civilian's dress. A glance of recognition 
follows these last like a wave along the street, for they 

What is a grenadier? 

Lord Cornwallis served in the Seven Years' War. He was 
sent to America in 1776, and fought in the battle of Long Island 
and pursued Washington's army through New Jersey. He was 
defeated at Princeton, decided the victory at Brandy wine, and 
served at Germantown and Monmouth, Having been appointed 
to the command of the southern army, he overwhelmed Gates 
at Camden. Then followed his campaign in Virginia against 
Lafayette, the seige of his army at Yorktown, and its surrender 
to the Franco- American troops on October 17, 1781. He was 
the ablest of the British generals. 



26 VALLEY FORGE 

are Joseph Galloway, Enoch Story, Tench Coxe, and 
the two Aliens, — father and son, — Tories, who have 
only dared to return home behind British bayonets. 
Long lines of red coats follow till the Fourth, the 
Fortieth, and the Fifty-fifth Regiments have passed by. 
But who are these in dark blue that come behind the 
grenadiers? Breeches of yellow leather, leggings of 
black, and tall, pointed hats of brass complete their 
uniform. They wear moustaches, and have a fierce, 
foreign look, and their unfamiliar music seems to a 
child in that crowd to cry '^ Plunder! plunder! plunder!" 
as it times their rapid march. These are the Hessian 
mercenaries whom Washington surprised and thrashed 
so well at Christmas in 76. And now grenadiers and 
yagers, horse, foot, and artillery that rumbles along 
making the windows rattle, have all passed by. The 
Fifteenth Regiment is drawn up on High Street, 

"It has been said that, with others, Tench Coxe went out to 
meet Howe to ask him to protect the city. His conduct, however, 
was such that he was attainted of treason, and it is also true that 
he surrendered himself and was acquitted." — J. M. Hoppin. 

Hessians: Early in 1776 the British government made treat- 
ies with various German petty principalities by which it obtained 
mercenaries for the war in America. Under this treaty the 
Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel sent 17,000 troops, the Duke of Bruns- 
wick 6000, the Count of Hesse-Hanau 2400, the Margrave of 
Anspach 2400, the Prince of Waldeck and the Prince of Anhalt- 
Zerbst about 1000 each. In all, England paid the princes about 
nine milHon dollars. The Hessians, on the whole, fought well. 
Some of them settled in this country and Nova Scotia. About 
17,000 returned to Germany. 



VALLEY FORGE 27 

near Fifth; the Forty-second Highlanders in Chestnut 
below Third; and the artillery is parked in the State 
House yard. All the afternoon the streets are full, — 
wagons with luggage lumbering along, officers in scarlet 
riding to and fro, aides and orderlies seeking quarters 
for their different officers. Yonder swarthy, haughty- 
looking man dismounting at Norris's door is my Lord 
Rawdon. Lord Cornwallis is quartered at Peter 
Reeves's in Second, near Spruce, and Knyphausen at 
Henry Lisle's, nearer to Dock Street, on the east. 
The younger officers are well bestowed, for Dr.Franklin's 
house has been taken by a certain clever Captain 
Andre. The time for the evening parade comes, and 
the well-equipped regiments are drawn up in line, 
while slowly to the strains of martial music the sun 

Lord Rawdon came to America as a British soldier in 1773. 
He was a captain at Bunker Hill. As an aide to Sir Henry Clinton 
he fought at Long Island, White Plains, Fort Washington, and 
at Monmouth. He incurred much obloquy for the execution 
of Colonel Isaac Hayne. He was afterward made Governor- 
general of India. 

Baron Wilhelm Knyphausen came to America as second in 
command of the Hessians in 1776. In 1777 he was placed in 
command of the German auxiliaries. He fought at Long Island, 
White Plains, Fort Washington, and Monmouth. During the 
absence of Sir Henry CHnton he was in command of New York 
City. 

Major John Andre (1751-1780) was the Adjutant-general 
of the British army. He was sent by Clinton to arrange with 
Arnold the details of the latter 's projected treachery. The two 
had a secret conference near Stony Point. On his way back he 



28 VALLEY FORQE 

sinks in autumnal splendor in the west. The streets 
are soon in shadow, but still noisy with the tramping of 
soldiers and the clatter of arms. In High Street, and 
on the commons, fires are lit for the troops to do their 
cooking, and the noises of the camp mingle with the 
city's hum. Most of the houses are shut, but here and 
there one stands wide open, while brilliantly dressed 
officers lounge at the windows or pass and repass in the 
doorway. The sound of laughter and music is heard, 
and the brightly lit windows of the London Coffee 
House and the Indian Queen tell of the parties that are 
celebrating there the event they think so glorious, and 
thus, amid sounds of revelry, the night falls on the 
Quaker City. In spite of Trenton, and Princeton, and 
Brandy wine; in spite of the wisdom of Congress, and 
the courage and skill of the Commander-in-Chief; in 
spite of the bravery and fortitude of the Continental 
army, the forces of the king are in the Rebel capital, 
and the " all's well " of hostile sentinels keeping guard 

was stopped by three men, who refused all the rewards which he 
offered them, and delivered him and all his papers, which were in 
Arnold's handwriting, to the nearest American officer. A military 
court condemned him to death as a spy, and he was hanged at 
Tappan on October 2, 1780. He was buried in Westminster 
Abbey, and a monument was many years afterward erected at 
Tappan in memory of the affair. 

In 1683 Philadelphia was chosen as the capital of the colony, 
and continued to be such for 117 years. During the earlier 
part of the Revolution the city was the capital of the colonies. 
The occupation of the city at this time necessitated the removal of 



VALLEY FORGE 29 

by her northern border passes unchallenged from the 
Schuylkill to the Delaware. 

What matters it to Sir WiUiam Howe and his vic- 
torious army if rebels be starving and their ragged 
currency be almost worthless? Here is gold and plenty 
of good cheer. What whether they threaten to attack 
the British lines or disperse through the impoverished 
country in search of food? The ten redoubts that 
stretch from Fairmount to Cohocksink Creek are stout 
and strongly manned, the river is open, and supplies 
and reinforcements are on the way from England. 
What if the earth be wrinkled with frost? The houses 
of Philadelphia are snug and warm. What if the 
rigorous winter have begun and snow be whitening the 
hills? Here are mirth and music, and dancing and wine, 
and women and play, and the pageants of a riotous 

the Continental Congress to Lancaster, and subsequently to York, 
Pennsylvania. In Philadelphia the preliminary Congress of 1774 
met; the Continental Congress sat; the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence and the Constitution of the United States were adopted, . 
and from 1790 to 1800 it was the capital of the nation. 

Sir William Howe served under General Wolfe at Quebec 
in 1759. In 1775 he succeeded General Gage as commander-in- 
chief of the British forces in America. He commanded the 
British troops at Bunker Hill; was victorious in the battles of 
Long Island and White Plains. He defeated Washington at 
Brandywine and then entered Philadelphia. After repulsing the 
American attack at Germantown, he went into winter quarters 
in Philadelphia. He was removed from his command in 1778 and 
superseded by Sir Henry Clmton. He was a well-educated and 
successful general, but was indolent or perhaps indifferent. 



30 VALLEY FORGE 

capital! And so with feasting and with revelry let 
the winter wear away! 

THE MARCH TO VALLEY FORGE 

The wind is cold and piercing on the old Gulf Road, 
and the snow-flakes have begun to fall. Who is this that 
toils up yonder hill, his footsteps stained with blood? 
'' His bare feet peep through his worn-out shoes, his 
legs nearly naked from the tattered remains of an only 
pair of stockings, his breeches not enough to cover his 
nakedness, his shirt hanging in strings, his hair dis- 
hevelled, his face wan and thin, his look hungry, his 
whole appearance that of a man forsaken and neglected." 
On his shoulder he carries a rusty gun, and the hand that 
grasps the stock is blue with cold. His comrade is no 
better off, nor he who follows, for both are barefoot, 
and the ruts of the rough country road are deep and 
frozen hard. A fourth comes into view, and still 
another. A dozen are in sight. Twenty have reached 
the ridge and there are more to come. See them as they 
mount the hill that slopes eastward into the great valley. 
A thousand are in sight, but they are but the vanguard 
of the motley company that winds down the road until 
it is lost in the cloud of snow-flakes that have hidden the 
Gulf hills. Yonder are horsemen in tattered uniforms, 
and behind them cannon lumbering slowly over the 
frozen road, half dragged, half pushed by men. They 
who appear to be in authority have coats of every make 
and color. Here is one in a faded blue, faced with 
buckskin that has once been buff; there is another on 



VALLEY FORGE 31 

a tall, gaunt horse, wrapped '' in a sort of dressing-gown 
made of an old blanket or woolen bed-cover." A few of 
the men wear long linen hunting-shirts reaching to the 
knee, but of the rest no two are dressed ahke, — not 
half have shirts, a third are barefoot, many are in rags. 
Nor are their arms the same. Cow-horns and tin 
boxes they carry for want of pouches. A few have 
swords, fewer still bayonets. Muskets, carbines, 
fowling-pieces, and rijfles are to be seen together side by 
side. 

Are these soldiers that huddle together and bow their 
heads as they face the biting wind? Is this an army 
that comes straggling through the valley in the blinding 
snow? No martial music leads them in triumph into 
a captured capital; no city full of good cheer and 
warm and comfortable homes awaits their coming; no 
sound keeps time to their steps save the icy wind rat- 
tling the leafless branches and the dull tread of their 
weary feet on the frozen ground. In yonder forest must 
they find their shelter, and on the northern slope of 
these inhospitable hills their place of refuge. Perils 
shall soon assault them more threatening than any they 
encountered under the windows of Chew's house or 
by the banks of Brandy wine. Trials that rarely have 
failed to break the fortitude of men await them here. 
False friends shall endeavor to undermine their virtue 
and secret enemies to shake their faith; the Congress 
whom they serve shall prove helpless to protect them, 
and their country herself seen unmindful of their suf- 
ferings; Cold shall share their habitations and Hunger 



32 VALLEY FORGE 

enter in and be their constant guest; Disease shall infest 
their huts by day and Famine stand guard with them 
through the night; Frost shall lock their camp with 
icy fetters and the snows cover it as with a garment; 
the storms of winter shall be pitiless, — but all in vain. 
Danger shall not frighten nor temptation have power 
to seduce them. Doubt shall not shake their love of 
country nor suffering overcome their fortitude. The 
powers of evil shall not prevail against them, for they 
are the Continental Army, and these are the hills of 
Valley Forge ! 

It is not easy to-day to imagine this country as it 
appeared a century ago. Yonder city, which now con- 
tains one-fourth as many inhabitants as were found 
in those days between Maine and Georgia, was a town 
of but thirty thousand men, and at the same time the 
chief city of the continent. The richness of the soil 
around it had early attracted settlers, and the farmers 
of the great valley had begun to make that country 
the garden which it is to-day; but from the top of this 
hill one could still behold the wilderness under cover of 
which, but twenty years before, the Indian had spread 
havoc through the back settlements on the Lehigh and 
the Susquehanna. The most important place between 
the latter river and the site of Fort Pitt, '^ at the junc- 



FoRT Pitt : A large fortification, erected in 1759 by the British 
upon the site of Fort Duquesne at the junction of the Mononga- 
hela and Allegheny rivers. Fort Pitt was so called in honor of 
the British minister. Its site is now in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 



VALLEY FORGE 33 

tion of the Ohio," was the frontier village of York, where 
Congress had taken refuge. The single road which 
connected Philadelphia with the western country had 
been cut through the forest to Harris's Block-House 
but forty years before. It was half a century only 
since its iron ore had led to the settlement of Lancaster, 
and little more than a quarter since a single house had 
marked the site of Reading. The ruins of Colonel 
Bull's plantation — burned by the British on their march 
— lay in solitude on the hills which are covered to-day 
with the roofs and spires of Norristown, and where 
yonder cloud hangs over the furnaces and foundries of 
Phoenixville a man named Gordon, living in a cave, gave 
his name to a crossing of the river. Nor was this spot 
itself the same. A few small houses clustered about 



Harris's Block-House: The site of Harrisburg, the capital 
of the state. 

John Bull was colonel of a Pennsylvania Regiment and 
member of the Board of War. 

The proposition to retire the army for the winter gave rise to 
well-marked differences of opinion. Within army circles the 
only question was that of location. Whether it should fortify 
and remain where it was at Whitemarsh, or to retire to the Per- 
kiomen hills, or move south and occupy the vicinity of Wilming- 
ton, was canvassed by the leading officers of the army and whose 
opinions were sought by the commander-in-chief. In selecting 
Valley Forge for his winter quarters, it was the purpose of 
Washington to give the greatest measure of protection possible 
to the state of Pennsylvania, and circumscribe the operations of 
General Howe within limits that would seriously affect his source 
of supplies. 



34 VALLEY FORGE 

Potts' Forge, where the creek turabled into the Schuyl- 
kill, and two or three near the river-bank marked the 
beginning of a little farm. The axe had cleared much 
of the bottom-lands and fertile fields of the great valley, 
but these hills were still wrapped in forest that covered 
their sides far as the eye could reach. The roads that 
ascended their ridge on the south and east plunged into 
densest woods as they climbed the hill and met beneath 
its shadow at the same spot where to-day a school- 
house stands in the midst of smiling fields. It is no 
wonder that Baron de Kalb, as he gazed on the forest 
of oak and chestnut that covered the sides and summit 
of Mount Joy, should have described the place bitterly 
as '' a wilderness." 

THE ENCAMPMENT 

But nevertheless it was well chosen. There was no 
town that would answer. Wilmington and Trenton 
would have afforded shelter, but in the one the army 
would have been useless, and in the other in constant 
danger. Reading and Lancaster were so distant that 
the choice of either would have left a large district 
open to the enemy, and both, in which were valuable 
stores, could be better covered by an army here. 
Equally distant with Philadelphia from the fords of 
Brandywine and the ferry into Jersey, the army could 

"Potts' Forge" was erected by Daniel Walker and sold to 
John Potts in 1757. It was called Mount Joy Forge and later 
Valley Forge, giving its name to the camp. 



VALLEY FORGE 35 

move to either point as rapidly as the British themselves, 
and while distant enough from the city to be safe from 
surprise or sudden attack itself, it could protect the 
country that lay between and at the same time be a 
constant menace to the capital. Strategically, then, 
the General could not have chosen better. And the 
place was well adapted for the purpose. The Schuyl- 
kill, flowing from the Blue Hills, bent here toward the 
eastward. Its current was rapid and its banks precip- 
itous. The Valley Creek, cutting its way through a 
deep defile at right angles to the river, formed a natural 
boundary on the west. The hill called Mount Joy, at 
the entrance of that defile, threw out a spur which, 
running parallel to the river about a mile, turned at 
length northward and met its banks. On the one side 
this ridge enclosed a rolhng table-land; on the other 
it sloped sharply to the Great Valley. The engineers 
under Du Portail marked out a line of intrenchments four 
feet high, protected by a ditch six feet wide, from the 
entrance of the Valley Creek defile along the crest of this 
ridge until it joined the bank of the Schuylkill, where 
a redoubt marked the eastern angle of the encampment. 
High on the shoulder of Mount Joy a second line 
girdled the mountain and then ran northward to the 
river, broken only by the hollow through which the 
Gulf Road descended to the Forge. This hollow place 



Louis Zebeque Du Portail, a French officer who served with 
distinction under Lafayette. During the Reign of Terror he 
escaped death by exile to America. 



36 VALLEY FORGE 

was later defended by an abattis and a triangular earth- 
work. 

A redoubt on the east side of Mount Joy commanded 
the Valley road, and another behind the left flank of the 
abatis that which came from the river, while a star 
redoubt on a hill at the bank acted as a tete-de-pont for 
the bridge that was thrown across the Schuylkill. 
Behind the front and before the second line the troops 
were ordered to build huts for winterquarters. Four- 
teen feet by sixteen, of logs plastered with clay, these 
huts began to rise on every side. Placed in rows, each 
brigade by itself, they soon gave the camp the appear- 
ance of a little city. All day long the axe resounded 
among the hills, and the place was filled with the noise 
of hammering and the crash of falhng trees. " I was 
there when the army first began to build huts," wrote 
Paine to Frankhn. " They appeared to me hke a family 
of beavers, every one busy: some carrying logs, others 
plastering them together. The whole was raised in a 
few days, and it is a curious collection of buildings in the 
true rustic order." The weather soon became intensely 
cold. The Schuylkill froze over and the roads were 
blocked with snow, but it was not until nearly the 
middle of January that the last hut was built and the 
army settled down into winter quarters on the bare hill- 
sides. Long before that its sufferings had begun. 

The trials which have made this place so famous arose 
chiefly from the incapacity of Congress. It is true that 

Tete-de-pont, head of the bridge. 



38 VALLEY FORGE 

the country in the neighborhood of Philadelphia was 
wellnigh exhausted. An active campaign over a small 
extent of territory had drawn heavily on the resources 
of this part of Pennsylvania and the adjacent Jersey. 
Both forces had fed upon the country, and it was not 
so much disaffection (of which Washington wrote) as 
utter exhaustion, which made the farmers of the de- 
vastated region furnish so Uttle to the army. Nor 
would it have been human nature in them to have pre- 
ferred the badly printed, often counterfeited, depreciated 
promise to pay of the Americans for the gold which the 
British had to offer. In spite of the efforts of McLa^^e's 
and Lee's Light-Horse and the activity of Lacey, of the 
militia, the few supplies that were left went steadily 
to Philadelphia, and the patriot army remained in want. 
But the more distant States, North and South, could 
easily have fed and clothed a much more numerous 
army. That they did not was the fault of Congress. 
That body no longer contained the men who had made it 
- famous in the years gone by. Frankhn was in Paris, 

Allan McLane joined the army under Washington in 1776; 
discovered weakness of Stony Point and promoted its capture; 
also discovered weakness of Paulus Hook and took part in its 
capture. 

John Lacey joined the army before he was twenty-three years 
old; head of a brigade of militia. 

Henry Lee, a member of the distinguished Lee family of 
Virginia. He attained distinction in the Revolutionary war as 
major of a corps called ''Lee's Legion," whence he derived his 
epithet of "Light Horse Harry." 



VALLEY FORGE 39 

where John Adams was about to join him. Jay, 
Jefferson, Rutledge, Livingston, and Henry were em- 
ployed at home. Hancock had resigned. Samuel 
Adams was absent in New England. Men much their 
inferiors had taken their places. 

The period, inevitable in the history of revolutions, 
had arrived when men of the second rank came to the 
front. With the early leaders in the struggle had dis- 
appeared the foresight, the breadth of view, the lofti- 
ness of purpose, and the self-sacrificing spirit belonging 
only to great minds which had marked and honored the 
coxnmencement of the struggle. A smaller mind had 
begun to rule, a narrower view to influence, a personal 
feeling to animate the members. Driven from Phila- 
delphia, they were in a measure disheartened, and their 
pride touched in a tender spot. Incapable of the loftier 

John Adams, second president of the United States. He was 
one of the five that drew up the Declaration of Independence. 
After a brief mission to France in 1778, he was again sent out, in 
1779, as one of the commissioners to negotiate a treaty of peace 
with Great Britain. 

John Jay, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. In 1780 he 
became minister to Spain, and was soon associated with Adams 
and Frankhn in negotiating peace. Jay's services in this treaty 
were conspicuous. 

Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, 
was born in Virginia. He became active in the Revolutionary- 
agitation, but his activity was as a writer, rather than a speaker. 
He is remembered for his draft of the Declaration of Independence. 
His political theories have had great influence upon the public life 
of America. 



40 VALLEY FORGE 

sentiments which had moved their predecessors, they 
could not overcome a sense of their own importance, and 
the desire to magnify their office. Petty rivalries had 
sprung up among them, and sectional feeling, smothered 
in 74, 75, and 76, had taken breath again, and asserted 
itself with renewed vigor in the recent debates on the 
confederation. But if divided among themselves by 
petty jealousies, they were united in a greater jealousy 
of Washington and the army. They cannot be wholly 
blamed for this. Taught by history no less than by their 
own experience of the dangers of standing armies in a 
free state, and wanting in modern history the single 
example which we have in Washington of a successful 
military chief retiring voluntarily into private life, they 
judged the leader of their forces by themselves and the 
ordinary rules of human nature. Their distrust was 
not unnatural nor wholly selfish, and must find some 

Edward Rutledge, who signed the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, was a South Carolinian ; he was a member of the committee 
that drew up the articles of Confederation; commanded a com- 
pany of artillery at Charleston; at one time Governor of South 
Carolina. 

Robert Livingston was a delegate to the Continental Cong- 
ress; served on committee that drafted Declaration of Independ- 
ence; was secretary of foreign affairs from 1781-1783; was chan- 
cellor of state of New York, and in this position administered the 
oath of office to Washington in 1789. 

Patrick Henry, noted for his famous arraignment of the 
Stamp Act. In 1775 occurred his "liberty or death" speech. 
He was noted for his eloquence, but did not, in constructive 
statesmanship, compare with some of the other great Virginians. 



VALLEY FORGE 41 

justification in the exceptional greatness of his char- 
acter. 

It was in vain that he called on them to dismiss their 
doubts and trust an army which had proved faithful. 
In vain he urged them to let their patriotism embrace, 
as his had learned to do, the whole country with an equal 
fervor. In vain he pointed out that want of organiza- 
tion in the army was due to want of union among them. 
They continued distrustful and unconvinced. In vain 
he asked for a single army, one and homogeneous. 
Congres,sinsisted_on thirteen distinct armies, each under 
the control of itsparticular State. The effect was dis- 
astrous! The personnel of the army was continually 
changmg. Each State had its own rules, its own sys- 
tem of organization, its own plan of making enlistments. 
No two worked together, — the men's terms even expir- 
ing at the most dehcate and critical times. Pro- 
motion was irregular and uncertain, and the sense of 
duty was impaired as that of responsibility grew 
less. Instead of an organized army, Washington com- 
manded a disorganized mob. The extraordinary vir- 

JoHN Hancock, of Massachussetts, was the first to sign the 
Declaration of Independence. He was President of the Conti- 
nental Congress from 1775 to 1777. He was a man of strong 
and popular character. 

Samuel Adams was one of the leaders of the Revolutionary 
patriots. His influence in shaping public sentiment for absolute 
independence of Great Britain was, doubtless, second to that of 
no one. He was one of the first to oppose taxation by Parlia- 
ment, When General Gage offered pardon to the Americans, he 
excepted Samuel Adams and John Hancock. 



42 VALLEY FORGE 

tues of that great man might keep the men together, 
but there were some things which they could not do. 
Without an organized quartermaster's department 
the men could not be clothed or fed. At first mis- 
managed, this department became neglected. The 
warnings of Washington were disregarded, his appeals 
in vain. The troops began to want clothing soon after 
Brandy wine. By November it was evident that they 
must keep the field without blankets, overcoats, or 
tents. At Whitemarsh they lay, half clad, on frozen 
ground. By the middle of December they were in 
want of the necessaries of life. 

THE SUFFERINGS OF THE SOLDIERS 

'' We are ordered to march over the river," writes 
Dr. Waldo, of Colonel Prentice's Connecticut Regiment, 
at Swedes' Ford, on December 12. " It snows — I'm 
sick — eat nothing — no whiskey — no baggage — Lord — 
Lord — Lord! Till sunrise crossing the river, cold and 
uncomfortable." '' I'm sick," he goes on two days after, 
in his diary, " discontented, and out of humor. Poor 

The situation of the camp was so eminently critical on the 
14th of February that General Varnum wrote to General Greene 
that "in all human probability the army must dissolve." On the 
16th of the same month Washington wrote to Governor Clinton, 
''For some days there has been httle less than a famine in camp. 
A part of the army has been a week without any kind of flesh and 
the rest three or four days. Naked and starved as they are, 
we cannot enough admire the incomparable patience and fidelity 
of the soldiery that they have not been ere this excited by their 
sufferings to general mutiny and desertion." 



VALLEY FOBOE 43 

food — hard lodging — cold weather — fatigued — nasty 
clothes — nasty cookery — smoked out of my senses — I 
can't endure it. Here comes a bowl of soup, sickish 
enough to make a Hector ill. Away with it, boy — 
I'll live like the chameleon, on air." On the 19th of 
December they reached Valley Forge. By the 21st 
even such a bowl of soup had become a luxury. " A 
general cry," notes Waldo again, "through the camp~ 
this evening: ' No meat, no meat.' The distant vales 
echoed back the melancholy sound: 'No meat, no 
meat.' " It was literally true. On the next day Wash- 
ington wrote to the President of Congress: '' I do not 
know from what cause this alarming deficiency, or rather 
total failure of supplies, arises, but unless more vigorous 
exertions and better regulations take place in that line 
immediately this army must dissolve. I have done all 
in my power by remonstrating, by writing, by ordering 
the commissaries on this head from time to time, but 
without any good effect or obtaining more than a 
present scanty relief. Owing to this the march of the 
army has been delayed on more than one interesting 
occasion in the course of the present campaign; and 
had a body of the enemy crossed the Schuylkill this 
morning (as I had reason to expect from the intelligence 
I received at four o'clock last night), the divisions which 
I ordered to be in readiness to march and meet them 
could not have moved." Hardly was this written 
when the news did come that the enemy had come out 
to Darby, and the troops were ordered under arms. 
/' Fighting," responded General Huntington when he 



/ 



I 



44 VALLEY FORGE 

got the order, " will be far preferable to starving. My 
brigade is out of provisions, nor can the commissary 
obtain any meat." '' Three days successively," added 
Varnum, of Rhode Island, '^we have been destitute of 
bread, two days we have been entirely without meat." 
It was impossible to stir. '' And this," wrote Wash- 
ington, in indignation, " brought forth the only com- 
missary in camp, and with him this melancholy and 
alarming truth, that he had not a single hoof to 
slaughter and not more than twenty-five barrels of 
flour." " I ainnjaw convinced beyond a doubt that 
unless some great .and .^capital change suddenly takes 
place in that line this army must inevitably be re-_ 
duced to one or other of these three things, — starve^- 
dissolve, or disperse in order to obtain subsistence." 

But no change was destined to take place for many 
suffering weeks to come. The cold grew more and more 
intense, and provisions scarcer every day. Soon all 
were alike in want. " The colonels were often reduced 
to two rations, and sometimes even to one. The army 
frequently remained whole days without provisions," 
is the testimony of Lafayette. " We have lately been 
in an alarming state for want of provisions," says 

Jedediah Huntington, a Harvard graduate; joined Conti- 
nental army near Philadelphia in fall of 1777; was on the court 
martial that tried General Lee; was a member of the first board 
of foreign missions ; died at New London, Connecticut, September 
25, 1813. 

James M. Varnum commanded a regiment at White Plains; 
led the troops at Red Bank; served under Lafayette; represented 
Rhode Island in the Continental Congress. 



VALLEY FORGE _ 45 

Colonel Laurens, on the 17th of February. " The army 
has been in great distress since you left," wrote Greene 
to Knox nine days afterwards; ''the troops are getting 
naked. They were seven days without meat, and 
several days without bread. . . We are still in danger 
of starving. Hundreds of horses have already starved 
to death." The painful testimony is full and uncon- 
tradicted. " Several brigades," wrote Adjutant-Gen- 
eral Scammel to Timothy Pickering, early in February, 
*' have been without their allowance of meat. This 
is the third day." " In yesterday's conference with 
the General," said the committee of Congress sent to 
report, writing on the 12th of February, " he informed 

John Laurens became an aide to Washington at the outbreak 
of the Revolution. He fought at Brandywine, Monmouth, Ger- 
mantown, Charleston, and Savannah. He also fought at York- 
town, and while serving under Greene, was killed in a skirmish. 

Timothy Pickering, of Massachusetts, was made attorney- 
general of the army in 1776 and member of the board of war, 
and in 1780 became quartermaster-general, materially aiding 
Washington's final movements. In 1791 he negotiated treaty 
with the Six Nations. In 1795 be became secretary of war, and 
a few months later took charge of the State Department. He was 
a radical Federalist, and his vigorous opposition to the Embargo 
made him at one time extremely unpopular. 

Adjutant-general Alexander Scammel was born in 
Massachusetts in 1747. In 1775 he was studying law with 
General Sullivan, when he left his law books and joined the army 
at Cambridge as Sullivan's brigade-major. He was with him in 
the battles of Long Island, Trenton, and Princeton, and was espe- 
cially distinguished at Saratoga. From 1778 to 1781 he was adju- 
tant-general of the army. He was mortally wounded at Yorktown. 



46 VALLEY FORGE 

us that some brigades had been four days without meat, 
and that even the common soldiers had been at his 
quarters to make known their wants. Should the 
enemy attack the camp successfully, your artillery 
would undoubtedly fall into their hands for want of 
horses to remove it. But these are smaller and toler- 
able evils when compared with the imminent danger 
of your troops perishing with famine or dispersing in 
search of food." " For some days past there has been 
little less than a famine in the camp," writes Washing- 
ton to Clinton; " a part of the army has been a week 
without any kind of flesh, and the rest three or four 
days." 

Famished for want of food, they were no better off for 
clothes. The unfortunate soldiers were in want of 
everything. " They had neither coats, hats, shirts, 

Alexander Hamilton was one of the most efficient states- 
men and founders of the Republic. As a leader of the Federal- 
ist party, and with a firm conviction in a strong government, 
he made use of his opportunity as Secretary of the Treasury 
to place the finances of the young nation on a firm basis. To 
him, more than to any other, is due the stability of the govern- 
ment, its honorable dealings with its creditors, and the busi- 
ness-like methods of conducting its finances. In 1774, while 
the Revolutionary fever was at its height, he made a speech 
in behalf of the colonists which was marvelous for a lad of 
seventeen. He followed this up by a vigorous war of pam- 
phlets. When hostilities began, he organized a cavalry com- 
pany, and so distinguished himself at White Plains that Wash- 
ington made him an aide-de-camp on his staff. After the 
surrender at Yorktown he studied law and rose to eminence at 
the New York bar. He was a member of the Federal Conven- 



VALLEY FORGE 47 

nor shoes," wrote the Marquis de Lafayette. " The 
men," said Baron Steuben, " were Uterally naked, 
some of them in the fullest extent of the word." " 'Tis 
a melancholy consideration," were the words of Pick- 
ering, '' that hundreds of our men are unfit for duty 
only for want of clothes and shoes." Hear Washington 
himself on the 23d of December: " We have (besides 
a number of men confined to hospitals for want of 
shoes, and others in farm-houses on the same account), 
by a field return, this day made, no less than two 
thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight men now in 
camp unfit for duty, because they are barefoot and 

tion in 1787, and his great work lay in his efforts to persuade the 
American people to adopt the Federal Constitution. As First 
Secretary of the Treasury, he held congress firmly to the duty of 
paying every dollar of the national debt at its face value. He also 
prevailed upon Congress to assume the debts incurred by the 
States in carrying on the war, and thus he established the credit 
of the nation. He was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr, then 
vice-president, and died July 12, 1804. (See page 65.) 

Baron Steuben, the disciplinarian of the American Revo- 
lutionary army, was born at Magdeberg. He had fought in the 
War of the Austrian Succession and also through the Seven 
Years' War. He became an aide-de-camp to Frederick the 
Great. Congress appointed him inspector-general, and his 
services in drilling the troops were invaluable. He commanded 
the left wing at the battle of Monmouth, and took part in the 
siege of Yorktown. He was a member of the board that de- 
cided the fate of Andre. He identified himself even more than 
Lafayette with the country to which he had given his aid, settling 
in New York, and receiving from Congress in his last years a grant 
of land near Utica, New York. 



VALLEY FORGE 49 

otherwise naked. Our numbers since the 4th instant, 
from the hardships and exposures they have undergone 
(many having been obUged for want of blankets to sit 
up all night by fires instead of taking rest in a natural 
and common way), have decreased two thousand men." 
By the 1st of February that number had grown to 
four thousand, and there were fit for duty but five 
thousand and twelve, or one-half the men in camp. 
" So," in the words of the Hebrew prophet, " they 
labored in the work, and half of them held the spears 
from the rising of the morning till the stars appeared." 
Naked and starving in an unusually rigorous winter, 
they fell sick by hundreds. " From want of clothes 
" their feet and legs froze till they became black, and it 
was often necessary to amputate them." Through a 
want of straw or materials to raise them from the wet 
earth (I quote again from the committee of Congress) 
" sickness and mortality have spread through their 
quarters to an astonishing degree. The small-pox has 
broken out. Notwithstanding the diligence of the 
physicians and surgeons, of whom we hear no com- 
plaint, the sick and dead hst has increased one-third 
in the last week's return, which was one-third greater 
than the week preceding, and from the present in- 
clement weather will probably increase in a much 
greater proportion." Well might Washington ex- 
claim: " Our sick naked and well naked, our unfor- 
tunate men in captivity naked! Our difficulties and 
distresses are certainly great, and such as wound the feel- 
ings of humanity." Nor was this all. What many had 



50 VALLEY FORGE 

to endure beside, let Dr. Waldo tell: '' When the officer 
has been fatiguing through wet and cold, and returns 
to his tent to find a letter from his wife filled with the 
most heart-aching complaints a woman is capable of 
writing, acquainting him with the incredible difficulty 
with which she procures a httle bread for herself and 
children; that her money is of very little consequence 
to her, — concluding with expressions bordering on 
despair of getting sufficient food to keep soul and boc'y 
together through the winter, and begging him to con- 
sider that charity begins at home, and not suffer his 
family to perish with want in the midst of plenty, — 
what man is there whose soul would not shrink within 
him? Who would not be disheartened from persevering 
in the best of causes— the cause of his country — when 
such discouragements as these lie in his way which his 
country might remedy if it would?" 

Listen to his description of the common soldier: '' See 
the poor soldier when in health. With what cheerful- 
ness he meets his foes and encounters every hardship. 
If barefoot, he labors thro' the mud and cold with a 
song in his mouth, extolhng war and Washington. If 
his food be bad he eats it notwithstanding with seeming 
content, blesses God for a good stomach, and whistles 

Dr. Albigence Waldo was born at Pomfret, Connecticut, 
February 27, 1750. At outbreak of Revolutionary War he was 
made a surgeon's mate in the army, but on account of feeble 
health was soon discharged. He won distinction at Valley Forge 
through his services in inoculating the troops against small-pox, 
He died January 29, 1794. 



VALLEY FORGE 51 

it into digestion. But harkee! Patience a moment! 
There comes a soldier, and cries with an air of wretched- 
ness and despair, ' I'm sick; my feet lame; my legs are 
sore; my body covered with this tormenting itch; my 
clothes are worn out; my constitution is broken; my 
former activity is exhausted by fatigue, hunger, and 
cold; I fail fast; I shall soon be no more! And ah the 
reward I shall get will be, ' Poor Will is dead! ' " And 
in the midst of this they persevered! Freezing, starving, 
dying, rather than desert their flag they saw their loved 
ones suffer, but kept the faith. And the American yeo- 
man of the Revolution remaining faithful through that 
winter is as splendid an example of devotion to duty as 
that which the pitying ashes of Vesuvius have pre- 
served through eighteen centuries in the figure of the 
Roman soldier standing at his post, unmoved amid all 
the horrors of Pompeii. '' The Guard die, but never 
surrender," was the phrase invented for Cambronne. 
" My comrades freeze and starve, but they never for- 
sake me," might be put into the mouth of Washington. 

A thousand years after an eruption of Vesuvius had buried 
Pompeii beneath its burning lava explorers laid bare the ruins of 
the ill-fated city. There the unfortunate inhabitants were found, 
just as they were overtaken by the stream of fire. The Roman 
sentinel was found standing at his post, his skeleton hand still, 
grasping the hilt of his sword, his attitude that of a faithful officer. 

Count Pierre Jacques Etienne Cambronne, a celebrated 
French general who accompanied Napoleon to Elba. He is the 
reputed author of the expression, "The guard dies, but never 
surrenders," incorrectly said to have been used by him at Waterloo 
when asked to surrender. 



52 VALLEY FORGE 

" Naked and starving as they are," writes one of 
their officers, " we cannot sufficiently admire the incom- 
parable patience and fidehty of the soldiery that they 
have not been ere this excited by their sufferings to a 
general mutiny and desertion." '' Nothing can equal 
their sufferings," says the committee, '^ except the 
patience and fortitude with which they bear them." 
Greene's account to Knox is touching: " Such patience 
and moderation as they manifested under their suffer- 
ings does the highest honor to the magnanimity of the 
American soldiers. The seventh day they came before 
their superior officers and told their sufferings as if 
they had been humble petitioners for special favors. 

Henry Knox gave up his trade as a bookseller and became an 
artillery officer; fought at Bunker Hill; was made brigadier- 
general of artillery; and fought with distinction at Trenton, 
Brandywine, Monmouth, and Yorktown. Washington ap- 
pointed him as Secretary of War in his first cabinet. 

Nathaniel Greene, a native of Rhode Island, was a farmer 
and blacksmith. He educated himself while working at the 
forge. He studied Euclid, Caesar's Commentaries, Marshal 
Turenne's works. Sharp's Military Guide, Blackstone's Com- 
mentaries, etc. He was commissioned brigadier-general in 1775. 
He fought at Trenton, Princeton, and saved the army from 
defeat at Brandywine by a rapid march and skilful management. 
He presided at the trial of Major Andre. He succeeded Gates 
in command of the southern forces. His celebrated retreat from 
South Carolina across North Carolina into Virginia won for him 
a high rank in the estimation of military men. Congress pre- 
sented him with two pieces of ordnance taken from the British 
as a public testimony of his skill in managing the southern 
department. By his skill in military movements he proved 
himself one of the most brilliant generals of that time. 




EXTERIOR AND INTERIOR OF OLD SCHOOL-HOUSE ON VALLEY 
FORGE CAMP GROUND 

Built by Letitia Aubrey, daughter of William Penn, in 1705. 
Restored by Valley Forge Park Commission in 1907. 
Used as a hospital in winter of 1777-1778. 



54 VALLEY FORGE 

They added that it would be impossible to continue 
/ in^camp any longer without support." In March, 
/ /Thomas Wharton writes in the name of Pennsylvania : ^ 
^ \/' The unparalleled patience and magnanimity withy 

which the army under your Excellency's command 

_ have endured the hardships attending their situation, 

unsupplied as they have been through an uncommonly 

severe winter, is an honor which posterity will consider 

as more illustrious than could have been derived to 

them by a victory obtained by any sudden and vigorous 

\ exertion. '^^ '' I would cherish these dear, ragged 

Continentals, whose patience will be the admiration 

of future ages, and glory in bleeding with them," 

cried John Laurens in the enthusiasm of youth. ^' The 

patience and endurance of both soldiers and officers 

was a miracle which each moment served to renew," 

said Lafayette in his old a^e. But the noblest tribute 

comes from the pen of ;b^ who kAew "them best: 

/t Without arrogance or the smallest deviation from 

/ truth, it may be said that no history now extant can 

/ furnish an instance of an army's suffering such uncom- 

^ mon hardships as ours has done, and bearing them with 

' the same patience and fortitude. To see men without 

clothes to cover their nakedness, without blankets to lie 

on, without shoes (for the want of which their marches 

Thomas Wharton was a zealous opponent of the oppressive 
measures of England toward the colonies. He was chosen a 
member of the Philadelphia Committee of Safety, and became 
president one year later. He was president of Pennsylvania from 
1777 to 1778. 



VALLEY FORGE 55 

might be traced by the blood from their feet) , and almost 
as often without provisions as with them, marching 
through the frost and snow, and at Christmas taking 
up their winter-quarters within a day's march of the 
enemy without a house or a hut to cover them till they 
could be built, and submitting without a murmur, is a 
proof of patience and obedience which in my opinion 
can scarce be paralleled.'^ Such was Washington's 
opini©Be-ef-4he-so-ldi^r& of Galley Forge. 

J>--- HOLY GROUND 

Americans, who have gathered on the broad bosom 
of these hills to-day, if heroic deeds can consecrate a 
spot of earth, if the living be still sensible of the example 
of the dead, if courage -be yet a common virtue and 
patience in suffering be still honorable in your sight, if 
freedom be any longer precious and faith in humanity 
be not banished from among you, if love of country still 

What was Washington's opinion of his soldiers? Compare 
the condition of the American soldiers at Valley Forge with the 
British soldiers in Philadelphia. 

Compare the present condition of our country with what it was 
at the time when Washington's army encamped at Valley Forge. 

How does this Christmas compare with the Christmas cele- 
bration at Trenton? 

Name the heroic deeds that consecrated Valley Forge. 

What is the meaning of the expression, ''If the living be still 
sensible of the example of the dead"? 

Is patriotism a virtue? In what does love of country consist? 
Distinguish between partisanship and patriotism. What is 
heroism? In what respect were the soldiers at Valley Forge 
heroes? What are the lessons of this place? 



66 VALLEY FORGE 

find a refuge among the hearts of men, " take your 
shoes from off your feet, for the place on which you 
stand is holy ground." 

THE TROOPS AND THEIR LEADERS 

And who are the leaders of the men whose heroism 
can sanctify a place like this? Descend the hill and 
wander through the camp. The weather is intensely 
cold and the smoke hangs above the huts. On the 
plain behind the front line a few general officers are 
grouped about a squad whom the new inspector, the 
German Baron, is teaching some manoeuvre. Bodies 
of men here and there are dragging wagons up-hill 
(for the horses have starved to death) or carrying fuel 
for fires, without which the troops would freeze. The 
huts are deserted save by the sick or naked, and as 
you pass along the street a poor fellow peeps out at 
the door of one and cries, " No bread, no soldier!" 

These are the huts of Huntington's brigade, of the 
Connecticut line; next to it those of Pennsylvanians 
under Conway. This is the Irish-Frenchman soon to 
disappear in a disgraceful intrigue. Here in camp there 
are many who whisper that he is a mere adventurer, 
but in Congress they still think him " a great military 
character." Down^ t owards headquarters are the 

Thomas Conway came to the United States in 1777 and was 
made a brigadier-general. He was leader of the conspiracy 
against Washington known as the ''Conway Cabal," on account 
of which he was wounded in a duel with General John Cadwalader. 



VALLEY FORGE 57 

Southerners, commanded by Lachlin Mcintosh, in 
his youth ''the handsomest man in Georgia." Beyond 
Conway, on the hill, is Maxwell, a gallant Irishman, 
commissioned by New Jersey. Woodford, of Virginia, 
commands on the right of the second hne, and in front 
of him the Virginian Scott. The next brigade in order 
are Pennsylvanians, — many of them men whose homes 
are in this neighborhood, — Chester County boys and 
Quakers from the Valley turned soldier for their coun- 
try's sake. They are the children of three races : the hot 

Lachlin McIntosh was born near Inverness, Scotland, in 
1727; emigrated to Georgia; rose to the rank of brigadier-general 
in the Continental army. 

William Maxwell of New Jersey was made colonel of Second 
New Jersey regiment in 1775; appointed brigadier-general in 
1776; fought in battles of Brandy wine, Germantown, and Mon- 
mouth; participated in Sullivan's campaigns in 1779; died 
November 12, 1798. 

William Woodford, of Virginia, was born in 1735. In 1775 
was appointed colonel Second Virginia regiment, and afterward 
became head of First Virginia Brigade; wounded at battle of 
Brandywine; died November 13, 1780. 

The Virginian Scott (Charles Scott) was born in Virginia 
in 1733; was made a corporal of a Virginia company in the battle 
of Monongahela when Bradford was defeated in 1755. When the 
Revolution broke out, he raised the first organized regiment 
south of the James River for the Continental service. On August 
12, 1776, he was appointed colonel, and was distinguished at 
Trenton and Princeton; just a year later was promoted to 
brigadier-general. He was the last officer to leave the field at 
Monmouth in 1778; took a prominent part in the storming of 
Stony Point, and the next year was with Lincoln at Charleston, 
when he was made a prisoner; moved to Kentucky, and was 



5S VALLEY FORGE 

Irish blood mixes with the colder Dutch in their calm 
English veins, and some of them — their chief, for in- 
stance — are splendid fighters. There he is at this 
moment riding up the hill from his quarters in the valley. 
A man of medium height and strong frame, he sits his 
horse well and with a dashing air. His nose is promi- 
nent, his eye piercing, his complexion ruddy, his whole 
appearance that of a man in splendid health and flowing 
spirits. He is just the fellow to win by his headlong 
valor the nickname of " The Mad." But he is more 
than a mere fighter. Skilful, energetic, full of resources 
and presence of mind, quick to comprehend and prompt 
to act, of sound judgment and extraordinary courage, 
he has in him the qualities of a great general, as he shall 
show many a time in his short life of one-and-fifty years. 
Pennsylvania, after her quiet fashion, may not make as 
much of his fame as it deserves, but impartial history 
will allow her none the less the honor of having given 
its most brilliant soldier to the Revolution in her 
Anthony Wayne. Poor, of New Hampshire, is en- 
camped next, and then Glover, whose regiment of 

elected Governor in 1808. His education was limited; was blunt 
in manners and decidedly eccentric. 

Anthony Wayne: For biographical sketch, see page 23. 

Enoch Poor, of New Hampshire, accompanied Schuyler's 
expedition to Canada in 1776; led the attack at Saratoga; served 
under Lafayette at Monmouth, and led a brigade against the 
Six Nations in 1779; in 1780 was placed in command of two 
brigades; was killed in a duel with a French officer near Hacken- 
sack. New Jersey, September 8, 1780. 

John Glover was born, in Salem, Massachusetts, November 




WAYNE MONUMENT AT VALLEY FORGE 



60 VALLEY FORGE 

Marblehead sailors and fishermen manned the boats 
that saved the army on the night of the retreat from 
Long Island. Learned, Patterson, and Weedon follow, 
and then at the corner of the intrenchments by the 
river is the Virginian brigade of Muhlenberg. Born 
at the Trappe, close by, and educated abroad, Muhlen- 
berg was a clergyman in Virginia when the war came on, 
but he has doffed his parson's gown forever for the 

5, 1732. At the beginning of the Revolution he raised 1000 men 
at Marblehead, and joined the army at Cambridge. His regi- 
ment, being composed of fishermen, was called the "Amphibious 
Regiment," and in retreat from Long Island manned the boats. 
It also manned the boats at the crossing of the Delaware. He 
was made a brigadier-general in 1777, and joined the northern 
army under General Schuyler. He led Burgoyne's captives to 
Cambridge. Died June 30, 1797. 

John Patterson was an active patriot in Massachusetts at 
the outbreak of the Revolution; member of Provincial Con- 
gress; after the affair at Lexington went with a regiment of 
militia to Cambridge; in battles of Trenton, Princeton, and 
Monmouth; remained in service to close of war; member of 
Congress 1803-1805; died in Lisle, New York, July, 19, 1808. 

George Weedon, born at Fredericksburg, Virginia, 1730, 
was a tavern keeper before the Revolution; had a brigade in 
battle of Brandy wine and' Germantown; dissatisfied with his 
rank and resigned service at Valley Forge; resumed his command 
in 1780; was in siege of Yorktown; died in 1790. His orderly 
book at Valley Forge has been published. 

John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, born at Trappe, Pa., 
October 1, 1746; died near Philadelphia October 1, 1807. At the 
outbreak of the Revolution he was pastor of a church at Wood- 
stock, Virginia. He enlisted as a colonel in 1775' "He won distinc- 
tion at Brandywine, Monmouth, Stony Point, and Yorktown. 



VALLEY FORGE 61 

buff and blue of a brigadier. His stalwart form and 
swarthy face are already as familiar to the enemy as 
they are to his own men, for the Hessians are said to 
have cried, " Hier kommt teufel Pete!" as they saw 
him lead a charge at Brandy wine. The last brigade 
is stationed on the river-bank, where Varnum and his 
Rhode Islanders, in sympathy with young Laurens, of 
Carolina, are busy with a scheme to raise and enlist 
regiments of negro troops. These are the commanders 
of brigades. The major-generals are seven, — portly 
Wilham Alexander, of New Jersey, who claims to be the 
Earl of Stirhng, but can fight for a republic bravely 
nevertheless; swarthy John Sulhvan, of New Hampshire, 
a little headstrong but brave as a lion; Steuben, the 
Prussian martinet, who has just come to teach the 

Name the brigade commanders. The major-generals. 

"Hier kommt teufel Pete!" — Here comes devil Pete. 

William Alexander, of New York, called Lord Stirling, was 
born in New York City. In 1757, he laid claim before the House 
of Lords to the earldom of Stirhng, but in vain. In 1775 he 
became a colonel in the Revolutionary army, a brigadier-general 
in 1776, and a major-general in 1777. He distinguished himself 
at Brandy wine, Germantown, and Monmouth. 

John Sullivan, of New Hampshire, was a delegate to the 
First Continental Congress; was appointed a brigadier-general in 
1775; a major-general in 1776. He led the right wing at Brandy- 
wine and Germantown, 

Martinet, said to be so called from General Martinet, who 
regulated the French infantry in the reign of Louis XIV; it has 
come to mean a rigid disciplinarian, especially in the army or 
navy. 



62 VALLEY FORGE 

army; DeKalb, — self-sacrificing and generous DeKalb, 
— whose honest breast shall soon bear eleven mortal 
wounds received in the service of America; Lafayette, 
tall, with auburn hair, — the French boy of twenty 
with an old man's head, — just recovering from the 
wounds of Brandy wine; and last and greatest of them 
all, Nathaniel Greene, the Quaker blacksmith from 
Rhode Island, in all great qualities second only to the 
Chief himself. Yonder is Henry Knox, of the artillery, 
as brave and faithful as he is big and burly, and the 
Pole, Pulaski, a man " of hardly middle stature, of sharp 
countenance and lively air." Here are the Frenchmen, 
Du Portail, Dubryson, Duplessis, and Duponceau. 
Here are Timothy Pickering and Light-Horse Harry 
Lee, destined to be famous in Senate, Cabinet, and 
field. Here are Henry Dearborn and Wilham Hull, 

Baron Johann DeKalb was born in Bavaria in 1721, and died 
near Camden, South Carolina, 1780. He entered the French 
service in 1743 and the American service in 1777, and was mortally 
wounded at Camden, 1780. He was a peasant by birth. 

Nathaniel Greene and Henry Knox: For sketches, see p. 52. 
Kazimierz Pulaski was outlawed for leading the insurgents 
in Poland, and came to America in 1777. He was placed on 
Washington's staff, and rendered valuable assistance at Brandy- 
wine and Germantown. He was given command of a body of 
foreigners, deserters, and prisoners of war which became famous 
as " Pulaski's Legion." At Savannah he was mortally wounded. 

DupoRTAiL, Dubryson, Duplessis, and Duponceau, French- 
men who came to America and espoused the cause of the colonies. 

Henry Dearborn, captain at Bunker Hill; distinguished 
himself at the battles of Stillwater, Saratoga, and Monmouth. 
He was Secretary of War in Jefferson's cabinet. 



VALLEY FORGE 63 

whose paths in life shall one day cross again, and John 
Laurens and Tench Tilghman, those models of accom- 
phshed manhood, destined so soon to die! 

Does that silent boy of twenty, who has just ridden 
by with a message from Lord Stirling, imagine that one 
day the doctrine which shall keep the American conti- 
nent free from the touch of European pohtics shall be 
forever associated with the name of James Monroe? 
Does yonder tall, awkward youth, in the Third Virginia, 

William Hull, for distinguished service, attained the rank of 
major. In 1812 he was placed in command of the army of the 
Northwest, with headquarters at Detroit. He surrendered 
Detroit to the British and was sentenced to death for this 
act, but was reprieved by Madison. 

Tench Tilghman, born in Baltimore, 1744; in 1776 became 
an aide to Washington; also became his confidential secretary 
until the close of the war. He served without pay for five years, 
and was in every action in which the main army was concerned; 
sent by Washington to announce to Congress the surrender of 
Cornwallis; was highly commended to Congress as worthy of 
great consideration. He died April 18, 1786. 

James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States, at 
the outbreak of the Revolution left William and Mary College 
and entered the Revolutionary army at the early age of eighteen. 
He distinguished himself in several battles. He was minister to 
France and England and was Secretary of State under Madison. 
As minister, his most important work was the negotiation with 
R. R. Livingston for the purchase of the province of Louisiana. 
President Monroe sent a message to Congress in which he an- 
nounced what has always since been known as "The Monroe 
Doctrine." In substance this doctrine was a declaration of 
independence for the whole of America. 



64 VALLEY FORGE 

who bore a musket so gallantly at Brandywine, dream, 
as he lies there shivering in his little hut on the slopes of 
Mount Joy, that in the not distant future it is he that 
shall build up the jurisprudence of a people, and after a 
Hfe of usefulness and honor bequeath to them, in the 
fame of John Marshall, the precious example of a great 
and upright Judge? Two other youths are here, — 
both of small stature and hthe, active frame, — of the 
same rank and almost the same age, whose ambitious 
eyes alike look forward already to fame and power in 
law and politics. But not even his own aspiring 
spirit can foretell the splendid rise, the dizzy elevation, 
and the sudden fall of Aaron Burr — nor can the other 

John Marshall, the great American Jurist, was born in 
Germantown, Virginia. He spent five years in the Revolutionary 
arm3^ After the war he applied himself to the study of law and 
rose rapidly in his profession. In 1801 President Adams ap- 
pointed him Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, which position 
he held till his death. Six men occupied the presidential chair, 
and eighteen congresses met during his term as Chief Justice. 

Aaron Burr, the grandson of Jonathan Edwards, joined the 
army at the outbreak of the Revolution, and served in Arnold's 
famous expedition through Maine to Canada, and afterward 
rose to the rank of colonel. He was one of the leading lawyers at 
the New York bar. In the presidential contest of 1800-01 
Colonel Burr and Thomas Jefferson each received 73 electoral 
votes, and the House of Representatives chose Jefferson for 
president and Burr for vice-president. A bitter political contro- 
versy between Burr and Hamilton led to a duel between the two 
at Weehawken, July 11, 1804, in which Hamilton was mortally 
wounded. He spent many years in exile, and when he returned 
to America, he was shunned by his neighbors. 



VALLEY FORGE 65 

foresee that the time will never come when his country- 
men will cease to admire the genius and lament the fate 
of Alexander Hamilton! 

WASHINGTON AT VALLEY FORGE 

And what shall I say of him who bears on his heart 
the weight of all? Who can measure the anxieties that 
afflict his mind? Who weigh the burdens that he has 
to bear? Who but himself can ever know the respon- 
sibilities that rest upon his soul? Behold him in yonder 
cottage, his lamp burning steadily through half the 
winter night, his brain never at rest, his hand always 
busy, his pen ever at work ; now counselling with Greene 
how to clothe and feed the troops, or with Steuben how 
to reorganize the service; now writing to Howe about 
exchanges, or to Livingston about the relief of prisoners, 
or to CHnton about suppHes, or to Congress about 
enlistments or promotions or finances or the French 
AlHance; opposing foolish and rash councils to-day, 
urging prompt and rigorous policies to-morrow; now 
calming the jealousy of Congress, now soothing the 
wounded pride of ill-used officers; now answering the 

Alexander Hamilton : For biographical sketch, see page 46. 

Enumerate some of the many arduous duties of Washington. 
Name officers of the Revolutionary army that were ill used by 
Congress. How did one of the officers show his resentment for 
his ill treatment? What complaints did the civil authorities 
have to make? Name some of the intrigues of Congress; in 
camp. How did Washington bear criticism? calumny? Char- 
acterize Washington as a general and as a stateman. 
; 



6Q VALLEY FORGE 

complaints of the civil authority, and now those of the 
starving soldiers, whose sufferings he shares, and by his 
cheerful courage keeping up the hearts of both ; repress- 
ing the zeal of friends to-day, and overcoming with 
steadfast rectitude the intrigues of enemies in Congress 
and in camp to-morrow; bearing criticism with patience 
and calumny with fortitude, and, lest his country 
should suffer, answering both only with plans for her 
defence of which others are to reap the glory; guarding 
the long coast with ceaseless vigilance, and watching 
with sleepless eye a chance to strike the enemy in front 
a blow; a soldier subordinating the military to the civil 
power; a dictator as mindful of the rights of Tories as 
of the wrongs of Whigs; a statesman, commanding a 
Revolutionary army; a patriot, forgetful of nothing 
but himself; this is he whose extraordinary virtues only 
have kept the army from disbanding and saved his 
country's cause. Modest in the midst of pride, wise 
in the midst of folly, calm in the midst of passion, 
cheerful in the midst of gloom, steadfast among the 
wavering, hopeful among the despondent, bold among 
the timid, prudent among the rash, generous among the 



Intrigues in camp: The Conway Cabal was an intrigue by 
Gates, Lee, Mifflin, Wilkinson, and others of Washington's 
officers in 1777 for the promotion of brigadier-general Conway 
contrary to Washington's judgment. Washington was accused of 
incompetence and partiality, and finally Congress was prevailed 
upon to promote Conway to major-general and inspector-general. 
In 1778 Conway was wounded in a duel. He afterward apolo- 
gized to Washington, confessing his wrong. 



VALLEY FOROE 67 

selfish, true among the faithless, greatest among good 
men and best among the great, — such was George 
Washington at Valley Forge. 

But the darkest hour of night is just before the day. 
In the middle of February Washington described the 
dreadful situation of the army and " the miserable 
prospects before it " as '' more alarming " than can 
possibly be conceived, and as occasioning him more 
distress " than he had felt " since the commencement 
of the war. On the 23d of February he whom we call 
Baron Steuben rode into camp; on the 6th, Franklin 
signed the Treaty of Alliance at Versailles. 

STEUBEN AND FRANKLIN 

Frederick William Augustus, Baron Von Steuben, was 
a native of Magdeburg, in Prussia. Trained from early 
hfe to arms, he had been Aide to the Great Frederick, 
Lieutenant-General to the Prince of Baden, Grand 
Marshal at the Court of one of the Hohenzollerns, and 
a Canon of the Church. A skilful soldier, a thorough 
disciplinarian, a gentleman of polished manners, a man 
of warm and generous heart, he had come in the prime 
of life and vigor to offer his services to the American 
people. None could have been more needed or more 
valuable at the time. Congress sent him to the camp, 

Characterize Washington as a man, showing the many qualities 
that go to make up his character. 

In your own language, writ(i a sketch of George Washington 
at Valley Forge. 



I'^'^^'f, 




VALLEY FORGE 69 

Washington quickly discerned his worth, and in a Httle 
time he was made Major-General and Inspector of the 
army. In an instant there was a change in that depart- 
ment. A disciphne unknown before took possession of 
the camp. Beginning with a picked company of one hun- 
dred and twenty men, the Baron drilled them carefully 
himself on foot and musket in hand. These when they 
became proficient he made a model for others, and 
presently the whole camp had become a military school. 
Rising at three in the morning, he smoked a single 
pipe while his servant dressed his hair, drank one cup 
of coffee, and with his star of knighthood gleaming on 
his breast was on horseback at sunrise, and with or 
without his suite galloped to the parade. There all 
day he drilled the men, and at nightfall galloped back 
to the hut in which he had made his quarters, to draw 
up regulations and draft instructions for the inspectors 
under him. And thus day after day, patient, careful, 
laborious, and persevering, in a few months he trans- 
formed this untrained yeomanry into a disciplined and 
effective army. There have been more brilliant services 
rendered to America than these, but few perhaps more 
valuable and worthier of remembrance. Knight of 
the Order of Fidelity, there have been more illustrious 
names than thine upon our lips to-day. Like many 
another who labored for us, our busy age has seemed to 
pass thee by. But here, at last, when after a century, 
Americans gather to review their country's history, 
shall they recall thy unselfish services with gratitude, 
and thy memory with honor ! 



70 VALLEY FORGE 

And surely at Valley Forge we must not forget what 
Franklin is doing for his country's cause in France. It 
was a happy thing for the Republican Idea that it had 
a distant continent for the place of its experiment. It 
was a fortunate thing for America that between her and 
her nearest European neighbor lay a thousand leagues 
of sea. That distance — a very different matter from 
what it is to-day — made it at the same time difficult for 
England to overcome us, and safe for France to lend us 
aid. From an early period this alliance seemed to have 
been considered by the Cabinet of France. For several 
years secret negotiations had been going on, and in the 
fall of 1777 they became open and distinct, and the rep- 
resentatives of both nations came face to face. There 
was no sympathy between weak and feeble Louis and 
his crafty Ministers on the one side and the repre- 
sentatives of Democracy and Rebellion on the other 
— nor had France any hopes of regaining her foot- 
hold on this continent. The desire of her rulers was 



Louis XVI succeeded to the throne in 1774. He gave the 
American Colonies considerable aid during the Revolutionary 
war, and burdened France with a big debt in their behalf. 

''It was in this particular juncture of affairs and condition 
of opinion and policy that the genius of Dr. Franklin shone with 
peculiar lustre. At the gay court of Louis XVI he appeared as the 
representative of his country. His gigantic intellect, his reputa- 
tion in science, and his personal manners soon won for him at 
the French capital an immense reputation. His wit and genial 
humor made him admired; his humanity and courteous bearing 
commanded universal respect; his patience and perseverance gave 



VALLEY FORGE 71 

simply to humiliate and injure England, and the 
revolution in America seemed to offer the chance. 
Doubtless they were influenced by the fact that the 
cause of America had become very popular with all 
classes of the French people, impressed to a remarkable 
degree with the character of Dr. Franklin, and stirred 
by the contagious and generous example of Lafayette. 
Nor was this popular feehng merely temporary or 
without foundation. Long familiar as he had been with 
despotism in both politics and religion, the Frenchman 
still retained within him a certain spirit of Liberty which 
was stronger than he knew. His sympathies naturally 
went out toward a distant people engaged in a gallant 
struggle against his hereditary enemies, — the English; 
but besides all that, there was in his heart something, 
he hardly knew what, that vibrated at the thought of 
a freedom for others which he had hardly dreamed of 
and never known. Little did he or any of his rulers 
foresee what that something was. Little did France 

him final success. He became at length the idol of the French 
people. During the whole of 1777 he remained at Paris and 
Versailles, leaving nothing undone that might conduce to the 
cause of his country. At last came the news of Burgoyne's 
surrender. A powerful British army had been conquered and 
captured without aid from abroad. This marked success of 
the American arms afforded the excuse for which the French king 
had been waiting. One-third of the British forces in America 
had either been killed or captured, and France hesitated no longer 
to recognize our independence. The treaty was signed February 
6, 1778. The event was of vast moment, as it presaged the final 
success of the American cause." 



72 VALLEY FORGE 

imagine, as she blew into a flame the spark of Liberty 
beyond the sea, that there was that within her own 
dominions which in eleven years, catching the divine 
fire from the glowing West, would set herself and Europe 
in a blaze. Accordingly, after much doubt, delay, and 
intrigue, during which Franklin bore himself with rare 
ability and tact, treaties of amity, commerce, and al- 
liance were prepared and signed. The Independence 
of America was acknowledged and made the basis of 
alliance, and it was mutually agreed that neither nation 
should lay down its arms until England had conceded it. 
A fleet, an army, and munitions were promised by the 

The French Revolution began with the meeting of the States 
General in May, 1789, and continued until 1799. At first Ameri- 
cans were favorable to it, as to a natural consequence of the Ameri- 
can Revolution, and a movement in favor of humanity, liberty, 
and progress . But the execu tion of the king and the ensuing Reign 
of Terror turned the feeling against it. It was one of the main 
questions upon which our first political parties were divided, the 
Federalists opposing it, the Republicans favoring it. Because 
Washington's administration assumed a neutral position, it was 
attacked with great vigor. 

Within forty-eight hours after signing the alliance between 
France and America, British spies carried the portentous news 
to their sovereign, whose ministers at once sought, by well-marked 
measures of conciliation, to paralyze the inevitable result contem- 
plated by the alliance. As an inducement Great Britain offered 
to give everything that she had refused three years before, in- 
cluding freedom from taxation, and according representation in 
parliament; but the offer was too late. The Americans were 
firmly resolved on independence and snubbed the English 
commissioners sent to this country. 



VALLEY FORGE 73 

King, and, as a consequence, war was at once declared 
against Great Britain. 

THE DAWN AT LAST 

We are accustomed to regard this as the turning- ) 
point in the Revolutionary struggle. And so it y!i:asr^ 
But neither the fleet of France nor her armies, gallant 
as they were, nor the supplies and means with which 
she furnished us, were as valuable to the cause of the 
struggling country as the moral effect^atjiimie.asja£elt-a&- 
abroaji^_x£.ihe--all4a^ce._ Mopes Th^ were built upon 
the skill of French sailors were soon dispelled, the ex- 
pectations of large contingent armies were not to be 
fulfilled, but the news of the French alliance carried 
into every patriotic heart an assurance that never left it 
afterward, and kept aroused a spirit that henceforward 
grew stronger every year. Says the historian Bancroft : 
" The benefit then conferred on the United States was 
priceless. And so the flags of France and the United 
States went together into the field against Great Britain 
unsupported by any other government, yet with the good 
wishes of all the peoples of Europe." And thus illustri- 
ous Franklin, the Philadelphia printer, earned the magnif- 
icent compliment that was paid him in the French Acad- 
emy: " Eripuit fulmen ccelo, sceptrumque tyrannis." 

Why was this the turning-point in the Revolutionary struggle? 
What was the effect of the French alliance? 

Eripuit fulmen ccelo, sceptrumque tyrannis — He wrested the 
thunder from the sky and the scepter from tyrants. 



74 VALLEY FORGE 

And all the while, unconscious of the event, the winter 
days at Valley Forge dragged by, one after another, with 
sleet and slush and snow, with storms of wind, and ice 
and beating rain. The light-horse scoured the country, 
the pickets watched, the sentinels paced up and down, 
the men drilled and practised and starved and froze 
and suffered, and at last the spring-time came, and with 
it stirring news. Greene wasapp^oinled Quarter- 
master-General on the ^3d oi''"March, and under his 
skilful management relief and succor came. The 
Concihatory Bills, offering all but independence, were 
received in April, and instantly rejected by Congress, 
under the stirring influence of a letter from Washington, 
declaring with earnestness that " nothing short of 
independence would do," and at last, on the 4th of May, 
at eleven o'clock at night, the news of the French treaty 
reached the headquarters. 

On the 6th, by general orders, the army, after ap- 
propriate religious services, was drawn up under arms, 
salutes were fired with cannon and musketry, cheers 
given by the soldiers for the King of France and the 
American States, and a banquet by the General-in- 
Chief to all the officers in the open air completed a 
day devoted to rejoicing. " And all the while," says 

''On the 7th of May, 1778, at 9 o'clock a. m., the American 
Army was on parade. Drums beat and cannon were fired, as if 
for some victory. It was a day of jubilee, a rare occurrence for 
the time and place. The brigades were steady, but not brilliant 
in their formation. Uniforms were scarce. Many feet were bare. 
Many had no coats. Some wore coats made of the remnants of 



VALLEY FORGE 75 

the English satirist, '' Howe left the famous camp of 
Valley Forge untouched, whilst his great, brave, and 
perfectly appointed army fiddled and gambled and 
feasted in Philadelphia. And by Byng's countrymen 
triumphal arches were erected, tournaments were held 
in pleasant mockery of the Middle Ages, and wreaths 
and garlands offered by beautiful ladies to this clement 
chief, with fantastical mottoes and poesies announcing 
that his laurels should be immortal." On the 18th 
of May (the day of that famous festivity) Lafayette 
took post at Barren Hill, from which he escaped so 
brilliantly two days afterwards. At last, on the 18th 
of June, George Roberts, of Philadelphia, came gallop- 



their winter blankets. The pomp and circumstances of war was 
wanting. There was no review by general officers, with a well- 
appointed staff. Few matrons and few maidens looked on. 
There stood before each brigade its chaplain, God's ambassador 
was made the voice to explain this occasion of expenditure of 
greatly needed powder. The Treaty of Alliance was read and in 
solemn silence the American Army at Valley Forge united in 
thanksgiving to Almighty God that He had given them one friend 
on earth. One theme was universal, and it flutters yet in the 
breasts of millions, 'Praise God from whom all blessings flow.' 
Huzzas for the king of France, for Washington and the Republic, 
with caps tossed high in air and a rattling fire through the whole 
line terminated the humble pageant." — From Carrington's 
"Battles of the American Revolution." 

Byng's Countrymen. — For a description of these tourna- 
ments read Thackeray's Virginian, Chap. xci. 

George Roberts, read Spark's Writings of Washington, vol. 
V, p. 409. 



VALLEY FORGE 77 

ing up the Gulf Road, covered with dust and sweat, with 
the news that the British had evacuated Philadelphia. 
Six brigades were at once in motion, — the rest of the 
army prepared to follow with all possible despatch early 
on the 19th. The bridge across the Schuylkill was laden 
with tramping troops. Cannon rumbled rapidly down 
the road to the river. The scanty baggage was packed, 
the flag at headquarters taken down, the last brigade 
descended the river-bank, the huts were empty, the 
breast-works deserted, the army was off for Monmouth, 
and the hills of Valley Forge were left alone with their 
glory and their dead. The last foreign foe had left the 
soil of Pennsylvania forever. Yes, the last foreign foe! 
Who could foretell the mysteries of the future? Who 
foresee the trials that were yet to come? Little did 
the sons of New England and the South, who starved 



Washington, feeling assured of the evacuation of Philadelphia, 
prepared for the event, and on the 18th of May directed General 
Lafayette, with a corps of 2500 picked men, to occupy Barren Hill, 
observe the movements of the enemy, and in the event of their 
retreat across New Jersey, to fall upon their left and rear while he 
would follow as rapidly as possible with the main army. The 
assignment of this youthful officer to the command of an inde- 
pendent expedition composed of the flower of the army, charged 
with duties certain to expose him to trials and perils of the most 
extraordinary character, illustrates the boundless confidence in 
him; and the manner in which he acquitted himself in discon- 
certing the plans laid by Howe, Clinton, Grant, and Sir William 
Erskine to destroy or capture him and his command marks him 
as an officer of quick and brilliant perceptions upon the field of 
battle and brave to a fault. 



78 VALLEY FORGE 

and froze and died here in the snow together, think, as 
their eyes beheld for the last time the Uttle flag that 
meant for them a common country, that the time would 
come when, amid sound of cannon, their children, met 
again on Pennsylvania soil, would confront each other 
in the splendid agony of battle! Sorrow was their 
portion, but it was not given them to suffer this. It 
was theirs to die in the gloomiest period of their coun- 
try's history, but certain that her salvation was assured. 
It was theirs to go down into the grave rejoicing in the 
belief that their lives were sacrifice enough, blessedly 
unconscious that the liberty for which they struggled 
demanded that three hundred thousand of their children 
should with equal courage and devotion lay down their 
lives in its defence. Happy alike they who died before 
that time and we who have survived it! And, thank God 
this day, that its shadow has passed away forever. 
The sins of the fathers visited upon the children have 
been washed away in blood, — the sacrifice has been 
accepted, — the expiation has been complete. The men 
of North and South whose bones moulder on these 
historic hill-sides did not die in vain. The institutions 
which they gave us we preserve, — the Freedom for which 



Pennsylvania ^oiL refers to the battle of Gettysburg, which 
occurred July 1-3, 1863. The forces engaged during this three 
days' battle numbered between 70,000 and 80,000 on each side. 
The Federal loss was 2834 killed, 13,709 wounded, and 6643 
missing, making a total of 23,186. The total Confederate loss 
was 31,621. 



VALLEY FORGE 79 

they fought is still our birthright, — the flag under 
which they died floats above our heads on this anni- 
versary, the emblem of a redeemed, regenerate, re- 
united country. The union of those States still stands 
secure. Enemies within and foes without have failed 
to break it, and the spirit of faction, from whatever 
quarter or in whatever cause, can no more burst its holy 
bonds asunder than can we separate in this sacred soil 
the dust of Massachusetts and that of Carolina from 
that Pennsylvania dust in whose embrace it has slum- 
bered for a century, and with which it must forever be 
indistinguishably mingled. 

THE GLORY OF VALLEY FORGE 

Such, then, is the history of this famous place. To 
my mind it has a glory all its own. The actions which 
have made it famous stand by themselves. It is not 
simply because they were heroic. Brave deeds have 
sanctified innumerable places in every land. The men 
of our revolution were not more brave than their 
French allies, or their German cousins, or their English 
brethren. Courage belongs alike to all men. Nor were 
they the only men in history who suffered. Others 

Give the history of this famous place. In what respect has 
it a glory of its own? Give instances where brave deeds have 
sanctified innumerable places in every land. In what did the 
heroism of Valley Forge consist? What momentous things were 
intrusted to the keeping of the heroes of Valley Forge? Show 
how courage belongs alike to all men. 



80 \ VALLEY FORGE 

have borne trial as bravely, endured with the same 
patience, died with as perfect a devotion. But it is 
not given to all men to die in the best of causes or win 
the greatest victories. It was the rare fortune of those 
who were assembled here ,a hundred years ago that, 
having in their keeping the most momentous things 
that were ever intrusted to a people, they were at once 
both faithful and victorious. The army that was 
encamped here was but a handful, but what host ever 
defended so much? And what spot of Earth has had 
a farther reaching and happier influence on the human 
race than this? 

Is it that which the traveller beholds when from 
Pentelicus he looks down on Marathon? The life of 
Athens was short, and the liberty which was saved on 
that immortal field she gave up ingloriously more than 

Marathon, a small plain near the shore of the Gulf of Mara- 
thon, about 20 miles northeast of Athens. On the plain of Mara- 
thon, Miltiades, the Athenian general, defeated the Persian king 
and saved Greece, 490 B. C. 

Pentelicus, a mountain in Greece, ten miles northeast of 
Athens, rises to 3640 feet above the sea. 

Why was the life of Athens short? Why is the battlefield of 
Marathon regarded a-s immortal? Tell how liberty was saved on 
that immortal field. Did Athens profit by her great victory? 
Describe the Athenian civilization. What is meant by the ex- 
pression, "the boundaries of her tiny state were larger than her 
heart"? Why was Athens a prodigy of short lived splendor? 
Why should Athens be held up as a warning rather than an 
example? What are the "forest cantons"? What is meant by 
a "sterile independence"? 



VALLEY FOROE 81 

twenty centuries ago. The tyranny she resisted so 
gallantly from without she practised cruelly at home. 
The sword which she wielded so well in her own defence 
she turned as readily against her children. Her civil- 
ization, brilliant as it was, was narrow, and her spirit 
selfish. The boundaries of her tiny state were larger 
than her heart, whose sympathy could not include more 
than a part of her own kindred. Her aspirations were 
pent up in herself, and she stands in history to-day a 
prodigy of short-lived splendor, — a warning rather 
than example. Is it any one of those, where the men of 
the forest cantons fell on the invader like an avalanche 
from their native Alps and crushed him out of existence? 
The bravery of the Swiss achieved only a sterile inde- 
pendence, which his native mountains defended as well 
as he, and he tarnished his glory forever when the sword 
of Morgarten was hawked about the courts of Europe, 
and the victor of Grandson and Morat sold himself to 
the foreign shambles of the highest bidder. 

Morgarten, a narrow pass in central Switzerland, between 
Morgarten Hill and Lake Egeri, noted for a victory of the Swiss 
over the Austrians, November 16, 1315. The Swiss were fighting 
for freedom from the Austrian rule. They attacked the Austrians 
while they were marching through the pass, hurling down great 
rocks from the hills, and then charging so fiercely that nearly all 
of their enemies were killed. 

Grandson, a decayed town in Switzerland, on shore of Lake 
Neuchatel. It is memorable for the victory achieved in its 
vicinity in 1476 by the Swiss over Charles the Bold. 

Morat, a town of Switzerland. Charles the Bold was de- 
feated here by the Swiss confederates in 1476. 



82 VALLEY FORGE 

Or is it that still more famous field, where the Belgian 
Hon keeps guard over the dead of three great nations? 
There, three-and-sixty years ago yesterday, the armies 
of Europe met in conflict. It was the war of giants. 

VALLEY FORGE AND WATERLOO 

On the one side England, the first power of the age, 
flushed with victory, of inexhaustible resources, re- 
doubtable by land and invincible by sea, and Prussia, 
vigorous by nature, stronger by adversity, hardened by 
suffering, full of bitter memories and hungry for revenge, 
and on the other France, once mistress of the Continent, 
the arbiter of nations, the conqueror of Wagram and 
Marengo and Friedland and Austerlitz, — spent at 
last in her own service, crushed rather by the weight of 
her victories than by the power of her enemies' arms, — 
turning in her bloody footsteps, like a wounded lion, to 

When was the battle of Waterloo fought? Name the opposing 
generals. Locate this battlefield. Why does Mr. Brown call 
it a war of giants? What nations were engaged in this conflict? 
What is the modern interpretation of the term "Waterloo"? 
What is meant by the expression "redoubtable by land and 
invincible by sea"? Why did he characterize the Prussians 
as "vigorous by nature"? "strong by adversity"? "hardened 
by suffering"? "full of bitter memories" ? When was France 
mistress of the Continent? What is meant by "the arbiter of 
nations"? Who was the hero of Wagram, Marengo, Friedland, 
and Austerlitz? Locate these battlefields. 

Wagram, a village of lower Austria, eleven miles northeast of 
Vienna. It is famous for the victory of Napoleon over the 
Austrians, gained here on July 6, 1809. 



VALLEY FORGE 83 

spring with redoubled fury at the throat of her pursuers. 
Behold the conflict as it raged through the long June 
day, while all the world listened and held its breath! 

The long lines of red, the advancing columns of blue, 
the glitter of burnished steel, the roll of drums, the 
clangor of trumpets, the cheering of men, the fierce 
attack, the stubborn resistance, the slow recoil, the rattle 
of musketry, the renewed assault, the crash of arms, the 
roar of cannons, the clatter of the charging cavalry, the 
cries of the combatants, the clash of sabres, the shrieks 
of the dying, the confused retreat, the gallant rally, the 
final charge, the sickening repulse, the last struggle, the 
shouts of the victors, the screams of the vanquished, the 
wild confusion, the blinding smoke, the awful uproar, the 
unspeakable rout, the furious pursuit, the sounds dying 
in the distance, the groans of the wounded, the falling 
of the summer rain, the sighing of the evening breeze, 
the solemn silence of the night. Climb the steps that 
lead to the summit of the mound that marks that place 
to-day. There is no spot in Europe more famous than 

Belgian Lion, the Mont du Lion, is 200 feet high and about 
1700 feet in circumference, on the summit of which stands, on a 
lofty pedestal, an immense bronze lion, 48,000 pounds in weight. 

Marengo, a locality in Piedmont, Italy. It is memorable for 
the battle of June 14, 1800, between Napoleon and the Austrians, 
in which the latter were defeated. 

Friedland, a town of East Prussia. Here the French defeated 
the allied Russians and Prussians, June 14, 1807. 

AusTERLiTZ, a town of Moravia, twelve miles southeast of 
Brunn. It is celebrated for the victory gained by Napoleon over 
the emperors of Austria and Russia, December 2, 1805 



84 VALLEY FORGE 

the field beneath your feet. In outward aspect it 
is not unHke this which we behold here. The hills 
are not so high nor the valleys so deep, but the general 
effect of field and farm, of ripening grain and emerald 
woodland, is much the same. It has not been changed. 
There is the chateau of Houguomont on the west, and 
the forest through which the Prussians came on the east ; 
on yonder hill the Emperor watched the battle; beneath 
you, Ney made the last of many charges,^ — the world 
knows it all by heart. The traveller of every race 
turns toward it his footsteps. It is the most celebrated 
battle-field of Europe and of modern times. 

But what did that great victory accomplish? It 
broke the power of one nation and asserted the independ- 

HouGUOMONT : For a graphic description of Houguomont, read 
" Les Miserables " by Victor Hugo. 

Who commanded the Prussians? In what respect did Napo- 
leon's defeat revenge the memory of Jena and Corunna? How 
did it break the spell that made the fated name of Napoleon the 
bond of an empire almost universal. 

Marshall Ney, a famous French General. Napoleon called 
him the bravest of the brave, and for his valor at Elchingen gave 
him the title of Duke of Elchingen. At Waterloo he had five 
horses shot under him. When Napoleon was finally conquered, 
he was tried for desertion and condemned to be shot. 

Why should the whole world be interested in the battle of 
Waterloo? Why is it the most famous battlefield in Europe? Is 
the introduction and description of the battle of Waterloo a 
digression from the main discourse? Can you justify this digres- 
sion? Does the digression violate the unity of the oration? 
Is the description of this battle vivid? Have you a clear mental 
picture of it? 



VALLEY FORGE 85 

ence of the rest. It took from France an Emperor and 
gave her back a King, a ruler whom she had rejected 
in place of one whom she had chosen, a Bourbon for a 
Bonaparte, a King by Divine right for an Emperor by 
the people's will. It revenged the memory of Jena and 
Corunna, and broke the spell that made the fated name 
Napoleon the bond of an empire almost universal; it 
struck down one great man and fixed a dozen small ones 
on the neck of Europe. But what did it bequeath 
to us besides the ever-precious example of heroic deeds? 
Nothing. What did they who conquered there achieve? 
Fame for themselves, woe for the vanquished, glory for 
England, revenge for Prussia, shame for France, noth- 
ing for Humanity, nothing for Liberty, nothing for Civil- 
ization, nothing for the Rights of Man. One of the great 
Englishmen of that day declared that it had turned 

Bourbon, a member of a family which has occupied European 
thrones. 

Napoleon, general of the French army in Italy; commander in 
Egypt; First Consul of France, Emperor of the French; an exile in 
the island of St. Helena. 

Jena, a town of Germany, twelve miles southeast of Weimar. 
Here, on October 14, 1806, Napoleon totally defeated the Prus- 
sians. 

Corunna, a fortified city of Spain in Galicia. 

What was achieved by the conquerors of Waterloo? What 
great principles were involved in the war of the American Revo- 
lution? What great document enunciated a new principle to the 
world in regard to the rights of man? State that principle. 
What great Englishman declared that the battle of Waterloo 
had turned back the hands of the dial of the world's progress for 
fifty years? What did he mean by that expression? What 



86 VALLEY FORGE 

back the hands of the dial of the world's progress for 
fifty years. And, said an Enghsh poetess, — 

The Kings crept out again to feel the sun, 
The Kings crept out — the peoples sat at home, 
And finding the long-invocated peace, 
A pall embroidered with worn images 
Of rights divine, too scant to cover doom 
Such as they suffered^curst the corn that grew 
Rankly to bitter bread on Waterloo. 

THE SPIRIT OF LIBERTY 

My countrymen: — For a century the eyes of strug- 
gling nations have turned towards this spot, and lips 
in every language have blessed the memory of Valley 
Forge! The tide of battle never ebbed and flowed upon 
these banks; these hills never trembled beneath the 
tread of charging squadrons nor echoed the thunders of 
contending cannon. The blood that stained this ground 
did not rush forth in the joyous frenzy of the fight; it 

English poetess is quoted in the text? Why have struggling 
nations turned their eyes toward Valley Forge? Why is the 
memory of Valley Forge blessed to every liberty-loving patriot? 
If history has its lessons, what is the lesson of Valley Forge? 
Why is Valley Forge one of the altars erected by our forefathers 
to Liberty and to Humanity? In what respect was this encamp- 
ment a factor in the great work of civilization in its onward sweep 
of progress and development? Is patriotism a sentiment? Is 
it a principle born in our nature and part of our humanity? 
For what did the soldiers of the Revolution fight? What did 
they defend? What did they have in their keeping? In what 
were the heroes of Valley Forge distinguished from the heroes 
of Waterloo? 



VALLEY FORGE 87 

fell drop by drop from the heart of a suffering people. 
They who once encamped here in the snow fought not 
for conquest, not for power, not for glory, not for their 
country only, not for themselves alone. They served 
here for posterity ; they suffered here for the human race; 
they bore here the cross of all the peoples; they died 
here that Freedom might be the heritage of all. Tt was 
Humanity which they defended; it was Liberty herself 
that they had in keeping, — she that was sought in the 
wilderness and mourned for by the waters of Babylon, — 
that was saved at Salamis and thrown away at Chser- 
onea, — that was fought for at Cannae and lost forever 
at Pharsalia and Philippi, — she who confronted the 
Armada on the deck with Howard and rode beside 
Cromwell on the field of Worcester, — for whom the, 
Swiss gathered into his breast the sheaf of spears at 



Babylon, the ancient capital of the Babylonio-Chaldean 
empire. 

Salamis, an island of Greece in the Gulf of Aegina. On the 
eastern shore the Greeks under Thermistodes gained a memor- 
able naval victory over the Persians, 480 B. C. 

Chaeronea, an ancient city of Greece, famous for a victory 
gained by Philip of Macedon over the Athenians and Thebans, 
338 B. C, and for Sulla's victory over the general of Mithridates, 

Cannae, an ancient town of Italy, memorable for the victory 
which Hannibal gained over the Romans in its vicinity in 216 B. C. 

Pharsalia, a town of Greece in Thessaly. It was on the 
Pharsalian Plain that Caesar overwhelmed Pompey in 48 B. C. 

Philippi, an ancient town of Macedonia. In the plain west of 
it, the battles took place in which Octavius and Anthony defeated 
Brutus and Cassius. 



88 VALLEY FORGE 

Sempach and the Dutchman broke the dykes of Holland 
and welcomed in the sea, — she of whom Socrates spoke 
and Plato wrote and Brutus dreamed and Homer sung, 
— for whom Eliot pleaded and Sydney suffered and Mil- 
ton prayed and Hampden fell! Driven by the persecu- 
tion of centuries from the older world, she had come 
with Pilgrim and Puritan and Cavalier and Quaker to 
seek a shelter in the new. Attacked once more by her 

Armada, a great fleet sent by Philip II of Spain against 
England in 1588. It was met and defeated by the English fleet 
of about 180 vessels, under Lord Howard, in English Channel in 
August, 1588. 

Oliver Cromwell, on the field of Worcester, September 3, 
1651, overwhelmed the army of Charles II. 

Sempach, a town of Switzerland. In its vicinity, in 1386, a 
body of Swiss routed a greatly superior force of Austrians. The 
story of Arnold of Winkelried is associated with this battle. 

Socrates, a famous Greek philosopher, born near Athens, 
about 470 B. C. 

Plato, a famous Greek philosopher and teacher of Aristotle; 
the founder of the Academic School. 

Brutus, a Roman politician and scholar. 

Homer, the poet to whom is assigned by very ancient tradi- 
tion the authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey. 

John Eliot was one of the few men who treated the Indians 
kindly. He spent his life in earnest efforts to Christianize them. 

Sir Philip Sidney, a famous English author, soldier, and 
courtier. He came to his death on the field of Zutphen, whither 
he had been sent by the queen to aid those provinces in their 
struggle with Philip II. While being carried from the field, 
wounded and faint, he called for a drink; but as he was about 
to put the bottle to his lips, he saw a poor soldier looking long- 
ingly at the bottle. Sir Philip, before he had tasted a drop, at 



VALLEY FORGE 89 

old enemies, she had taken refuge here. Nor she alone. 
The dream of the Greek, the Hebrew's prophecy, the 
desire of the Roman, the Italian's prayer, the longing 
of the German mind, the hope of the French heart, the 
glory and honor of Old England herself, the yearning of 
all the centuries, the aspiration of every age, the promise 

once handed it to the man with the words, "Thy necessity is yet 
greater than mine." 

John Milton, a famous English poet, author of Paradise 
Lost, etc. 

John Hampden, a celebrated English statesman who, when 
twenty-seven years old, was elected to Parliament and soon showed 
himself a strong lover of liberty. He became the most popiilar 
man in England. When civil war broke out, he raised a regiment 
and marched against the king. 

The Pilgrims came to America in 1620 to escape religious 
persecution. They did not like the ceremonies of the Estab- 
lished Church, and went so far as to separate themselves from it ; 
hence they were called Separatists. 

The Puritans were so called from their desire to purify the 
ceremonies of the Church of England. They did not separate 
themselves from the church as did the Pilgrims, but desired to 
purify it from within. The settlers of Massachusetts Bay came 
from this sect. 

Cavalier, the name given, from their gay dress and de- 
meanor, to the supporters of Charles I. during the great civil war 
in England. The execution of Charles L, in 1649, had driven 
great numbers of his friends to Virginia. It was the promised 
land of "distressed Cavaliers," as the old narratives called 
them, and they flowed to Virginia in a stately stream during 
the Commonwealth period. 

The Quakers; the religious sect most severely persecuted in 
England after the restoration of the king was the Society of 
Friends, whose members were sometimes called Quakers. 



90 OA- " VALLEY FORGE , 

of the past, the fulfilment of the future, the seed of the 
old time, the harvest of the new, — all these were with 
her. And h«f-€, in the heart of America, they were 
safe. The last of many struggles was almost won; the 
best of many centuries was about to break ; the time was 
already come when from these shores the light of a new 
civilization should flash across the sea, and from this 
place a voice of triumph make the Old World tremble, 
when, from her chosen refuge in the West, the Spirit of 
Liberty should go forth to meet the rising sun and set 
the people free! 

THE NEW CENTURY 

Americans: — A hundred years have passed away, and 
that civihzation and that liberty are still your heritage. 
But think not that such an inheritance can be kept safe 
without exertion. It is the burden of your happiness 
that with it Privilege and Duty go hand-in-hand to- 
gether. You cannot shirk the present and enjoy in 
the future the blessings of the past. • Y'esterday begot 
to-day, and to-day is the parent of to-morrow. The 
old time may be secure, but the new time is uncertain. 
The dead are safe; it is the privilege of the hving to be 

What is the heritage of the American people? How was it 
secured? How may it be safeguarded? What is our civic duty 
in regard to the future? Why is the pohtical future uncertain? 
What is the privilege of the living? How is a country benefited 
by great actions? In what way may we convert the honor of 
Valley Forge into an eternal shame? In what way may we make 
the glory of Valley Forge ours? Why is it in the interest of our 
country to keep the anniversaries of great events? 



'iaiP^l 



VALLEY FORGE 91 



in peril. A country is benefited by great actions only 
so long as her children are able to repeat them. The 
memory of this-spet shall be an everlasting honor for our 
fathers, but we can make it an eternal shame for our- 
selves if we choose to do so. The glory of Lexington 
and Bunker Hill and Saratoga and Valley Forge be- 
longs not to you and me, but we can make it ours if we 
will. ^ It is well for us to keep these anniversaries of 
great events; it is well for us to meet by thousands on 
these historic spots ; it is well to walk by those unknown 
graves or follow the windings of the breastworks that 
encircle yonder hill ; it is well for us to gather beneath 
yon little fort, which the storms of so many winters have 
tenderly spared to look down on us to-day; it is well to 
commemorate the past with song and eulogy and pleas- 
ant festival, — but it is not enough. 

If they could return whose forms have been passing in 
imagination before our eyes; if in the presence of this 
holy hour the dead could rise and lips dumb for a century 
find again a tongue, might they not say to us: You do 
well, countrymen, to commemorate this time; you do 
well to Jionor those who yielded up their lives in glory 
here. Theirs was a perfect sacrifice, and the debt you 

Why is it not enough to commemorate the past with song and 
eulogy and pleasant festival? 

If the heroic dead of Valley Forge could rise and speak, what 
message would they communicate to their countrymen? Com- 
pare and contrast your country of 1777-1778 with your country 
of to-day, as to territory, population, wealth, natural resources, 
blessings, privileges, opportunities, and power. 



92 VALLEY FORGE 

owe them you can never pay. Your lines have fallen 
in a happier time. The boundaries of your Union 
stretch from sea to sea. You enjoy all the blessings 
which Providence can bestow, — a peace we never 
knew, a wealth we never hoped for, a power of which 
we never dreamed. Yet think not that these things 
only can make a nation great. We laid the foundations 
of your happiness in a time of trouble, in days of sorrow 
and perplexity, of doubt, distress, and danger, of cold 
and hunger, of suffering and want. We built it up by 
virtue, by courage, by self-sacrifice, by unfailing patrio- 
tism, by unceasing vigilance. By those things alone 
did we win your liberties; by them only can you hope to 
keep them. Do you revere our names? Then follow 
our example. Are you proud of our achievements? 
Then try to imitate them . Do you honor our memories? 
Then do as we have done. You yourselves owe some- 
thing to America better than all those things which 
you spread before her with such lavish hand, — some- 
thing which she needs as much in her prosperity to- 
day as ever in the sharpest crisis of her fate. For you 

What makes a nation great? Under what condition was the 
foundation of our nation laid? 

How was the greatness of our nation built up? How were our 
liberties won? What is liberty? How can we expect to keep our 
liberties? What is the great need of America to-day? What 
duties have we to perform? What should be the aim and ambi- 
tion of every American patriot? Name some lofty examples 
that should guide us in our civic duty. Name the elements of 
true patriotism. 



VALLEY FORGE 93 

have duties to perform as well as we. It was ours to 
create; it is yours to preserve. It was ours to found; it 
is yours to perpetuate. It was ours to organize; it is 
yours to purify! And what nobler spectacle can you 
present to mankind to-day than that of a people honest, 
steadfast, and secure, — mindful of the lessons of exper- 
ience, — true to the teachings of history,- — led by the 
loftiest examples, and bound together - to prot ect- their 
institutions-at-th^elose -of -the- -century,- as their fathers 
were-tO' win them at the beginning, by the ties of 
" Virtue, Honor, and Love of Country," — by that 
Virtue which makes perfect the happiness of a people, 
— by that Honor which constitutes the chief greatness 
of a State, — by that Patriotism which survives all 
things, braves all things, endures all things, achieves all 
things, and which, though it find a refuge nowhere else, 
should live in the heart of every true American? ^ 

My countrymen : — The century that has gone by has 
changed the face of nature and wrought a revolution in 
the habits of mankind. We to-day behold the da^vn 



How does virtue contribute to the perfect happiness of a 
people? How does honor constitute the chief greatness of 
a state? Name some instances in American history of dishonor? 
What is the test of true patriotism? In what way has the face 
of nature been changed? In what respect has the past century- 
wrought a revolution in the habits of mankind? Why do we 
stand at the dawn of an extraordinary century? In what way 
has man robbed the earth of her secrets and has sought to solve 
the mysteries of heaven? 



94 VALLEY FORGE 

of an extraordinary age. Freed from the chains of 
ancient thought and superstition, man has begun to 
win the most extraordinary victories in the domain of 
science. One by one he has dispelled the doubts ct 
the ancient world. Nothing is too difficult for his hana 
to attempt, — no region too remote, — no place too sacred 
for his daring eye to penetrate. He has robbed the 
Earth of her secrets, and sought to solve the mysteries 
of the Heavens! He has secured and chained to his 
service the elemental forces of nature; he has made the 
fire his steed; the winds his ministers; the seas his 
pathway; the hghtning his messenger. He has descended 
into the bowels of the earth, and walked in safety on 
the bottom of the sea. He has raised his head above 
the clouds, and made the impalpable air his resting- 
place. He has tried to analyze the stars, count the 
constellations, and weigh the sun. He has advanced 
with such astounding speed that, breathless, we have 
reached a moment when it seems as if distance had been 
annihilated, time made as naught, the invisible seen, 
the inaudible heard, the unspeakable spoken, the in- 
tangible felt, the impossible accomplished. And al- 
ready we knock at the door of a new century which 
promises to be infinitely brighter and more enlightened 
and happier than this. But in all this blaze of light 
which illuminates the present and casts its reflection 



In what way do you think the twentieth century to be infinitely 
brighter, more enlightened, and happier than the nineteenth 
century? 



VALLEY FORGE 95 

into the distant recesses of the past, there is not a 
single ray that shoots into the future. Not one step 
have we taken toward the solution of the mystery of 

.e. That remains to-day as dark and unfathomable as 
it was ten thousand years ago. 

We know that we are more fortunate than our 
fathers. We believe that our children shall be happier 
than we. We know that this century is more enlight- 
ened than the last. We hope that the time to come 
will be better and more glorious than this. We think, 
we beheve, we hope, but we do not know. Across that 
threshold we may not pass; behind that veil we may 
not penetrate. Into that country it may not be for us 
to go. It may be vouchsafed to us to behold it, wonder- 
ingly, from afar, but never to enter in. It matters not. 
The age in which we live is but a link in the endless and 
eternal chain. Our lives are like the sands upon the 
shore; our voices like the breath of this summer breeze 
that stirs the leaf for a moment and is forgotten. 
Whence we have come and whither we shall go not one 

Have we solved the mystery of life? Why are we more for- 
tunate than our fathers? Why should our children be happier 
than we? 

The peroration serves to sum up the main points in the dis- 
cussion; to make certain points more emphatic; or to make a 
pleasing and favorable impression upon the audience. What 
purpose does this peroration serve? Does it restate the main 
themes of the discussion? if so, what are they? Does the per- 
oration match the discussion? Is the style different from the 
treatment of the theme? If so, in what respect? 



96 VALLEY FORGE 

of US can tell. And the last survivor of this mighty 
multitude shall stay but a little while. 

But in the impenetrable To Be, the endless genera- 
tions are advancing to take our places as we fall. For 
them as for us shall the Earth roll on, and the seasons 
come and go, the snowflakes fall, the flowers bloom, and 
the harvests be gathered in. For them as for us shall 
the sun, like the life of man, rise out of darkness in the 
morning and sink into darkness in the night. For them 
as for us shall the years march by in the sublime pro- 
cession of the ages. And here, in this place of Sacrifice, 
in this vale of Humiliation, in this valley of the Shadow 
of that Death out of which the Life of America rose 
regenerate and free, let us believe with an abiding faith 
that to them Union will seem as dear, and Liberty as 
sweet, and Progress as glorious as they were to our 
fathers, and are to you and me, and that the Institu- 
tions which have made us happy, preserved by the vir- 
tue of our children, shall bless the remotest generations 
of the time to come. And unto Him who holds in the 
hollow of His hand the fate of nations, and yet marks 
the sparrow's fall, let us lift up our hearts this day, and 
into His eternal care commend ourselves, our children, 
and our country. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



I. THE MAN— HENRY ARMITT BROWN 

One of the greatest orators that this country has produced 
was once asked, what are the elements that go to make up a 
great oration? He replied, ^Hhe man, the place, and the occasion." 
Judged by this standard, Henry Armitt Brown's oration at Valley 
Forge, June 19, 1878, demonstrates the fact that as an orator he 
was the peer of Sumner and Phillips; reaching up to the plane 
of Everett; and, like the great French orators, his speech was 
finished, classic, evenly sustained, and with an elegance of style. 
He had four qualities of an orator — a masterful will, personal 
magnetism, a flexible and musical voice, and an exquisitely 
finished elocution. At a little over thirty years of age he held, 
as it were, entranced thousands by his great reasoning and 
eloquence. Looking around among the orators of the day, we 
see but a few who have not gained a good ripe age before they 
have attained that great sublimity of mind and character which 
seemed bound up in him. 

"The young men of our country should make his life a study; 
no more perfect model can be found, for in him they see what a 
young man has done, and what other young men can do. 
His example should serve to stimulate the young and noble- 
minded to exalted aims. 

"The young men in our American colleges should, we think, 
ever look forward to becoming public men, the recognized ser- 
vants of the republic; and they should act upon the principle 
that, from the very talents intrusted to them, they are expected 
to become the strong stays and helpers of the commonwealth. 

97 



98 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

By so doing they will follow in his footsteps, whose life is im- 
perfectly set forth in these pages, and who fell on the 'high 
places of the field' to make room for them to follow." 

His Childhood and Early Youth 

Henry Armitt Brown was born in the city of Philadelphia, 
December 1, 1844. His father was a representative business 
man; his mother was Charlotte Augusta Hoppin, from whom he 
inherited his literary tastes. 

"Harry was a sweet-tempered child, delicately strung arl 
extremely sensitive to the touch and sight of harsh things, as if 
unfit to be stretched on this rough world, imaginative, curious 
in his questionings, sympathetic and affectionate, but stubborn 
of will, and apt to see things in a very independent and ludicrously 
odd light." 

"When an older boy, his favorite pastime was studying the 
histories of great battles, especially those of Napoleon, and in 
arranging and moving companies of tin soldiers and parks of 
artillery according to the changing plans of the battles. This 
play was carried on so large a scale as to attract the attention 
of the neighbors and of older people to the extent of the combina- 
tions. One whole portion of the garden thus employed would 
become the scene of a wide and hurrying conflict, platoons of 
soldiers shifting across the field, forts blowing up, dwellings in 
flames, rivers crossed, and discharge of artillery from the flying 
batteries." 

He became so absorbed in his military plans that, until 
he was fourteen years of age, his one great ambition was to be- 
come a great captain. He was so bent upon a military career 
that he importuned his father, time and time again, to be per- 
mitted to go to West Point Military Academy, but was each time 
refused. As his biographer has said, "This throws some light 
upon his character, which, as it sometimes happens, beneath an 
almost feminine delicacy of organization, hid a nature of sinewy 
ambition fitted to leadership." He was prepared for college at 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 99 

the Burlington Academy and at Dr. Lyons School in Haverford, 
Pennsylvania. 

His College Life 

He entered Yale college in 1861, and it was not long before 
he cast himself into the current of student life with all his youth- 
ful enthusiasm. Here he found a congenial field for his varied 
talents, identifying himself with every social and Hterary effort. 
In resolutions drafted by class committees, in speeches delivered 
at class suppers; in Delta Kappa, Alpha Sigma Phi, and Psi 
Upsilon lyrics; in debates and war songs of \.xie Brothers in 
Unity; in the organization and carrying out the Thanksgiving 
Jubilees of sophomore, junior and senior years, his pen and 
voice were foremost. He was soon recognized as a ready and 
acceptable speaker and was in constant demand. During his 
college career he not only developed a talent for acting, but the 
college songs from his pen are sufficient evidence of his talent 
in this line. Honors were being constantly heaped upon him, 
but, it must be remembered, that they were won by the sheer 
force of his intellect. He read much, but not along any definite 
lines. He was passionately fond of the classics, especially the 
Latin poets. His independent reading included history, political 
economy, and philosophy. 

Harry Brown was chosen to be class-poet, a deserved tribute 
to his popularity and abihty. "His class-mates were satisfied 
that a great poet had spoken and what more could be asked?" 
His college life was irreproachable and his sense of honor ex- 
quisite. It was at Yale that he acquired the power to think, 
to reason, to write, and to speak — four great acquisitions for any 
man. What college education could do more? 

Settling Down to Work 

Soon after graduation he entered Columbia Law School in 
New York city, and in the following July, 1866, he sailed for 
the Continent, where he spent sixteen months visiting all 
the countries of Europe, with the exception of Russia, Sweden, 



100 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

Norway, and Spain. Upon his return from Europe he resumed 
his study of law in the office of Daniel Dougherty, Esq., of 
Philadelphia, and was admitted to the bar as an attorney, 
December 18, 1869. He devoted himself faithfully to his legal 
business, but in April, 1870, he sailed once more for Europe. 
Upon his return home he settled down to his professional studies. 
''He shook off the slight dilettantism which was the mingled 
product of a fondness for society and the cherishing, in a time of 
life betwixt the ideal and the actual, of something of a Hamlet- 
like spirit of thoughtful inaction. He was a dreamer, though an 
earnest one. As in college, while ever pondering it, he had not 
found his work. He had not heard the bugle call. The asso- 
ciations of early years clung about him, and he was more of a 
loiterer in those green imaginative meads than a laborer in the 
real field. He had begun to appreciate the sensible words of 
another, "Of all the work that produces results, nine-tenths 
must be drudgery." 

Mr. Brown became an active member of the Philadelphia 
Shakespeare Society, and his friends claim that the influence 
of his study of Shakespeare is perceptible in its power upon 
his oratory, giving it elegant finish, condensation, and tactical 
dexterity in dealing with mind. 

A Public Discovery 

On the 19th of December, 1872, a complimentary dinner was 
given to the Hon. Ex-Chief Justice Thompson. The best legal 
talent of the city was present. The eighth and last toast of 
the evening was "The Juniors of the Bar." This toast was as- 
signed to Henry Armitt Brown. This announcement caused 
some surprise, due to the fact that he was so recent a member 
of the bar. But these feelings were soon dispelled as his exquis- 
itely finished elocution fell upon the ear. "The PubHc Ledger" 
characterized the effort as "one of the marked orations of the 
evening." And so it was discovered that Harry Brown could 
speak. From now on his oratorical career was onward and 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 101 

upward. Ever and anon he was called to the lecture field and 
the political stump. He had every qualification for the public 
lecture field, and would have rivalled the most shining names 
upon the public y ,atform if he had folk-^^ed out this career. 

In the mean time he was married, I ccember 7, 1871, to Miss 
Josephine Lea, of Philadelphia — a union of rare happiness and 
congeniality of mind. 

A new field presented itself to his claims and oratorical powers. 
It was the Centennial Epoch of memoralizing the great events 
of the country's history. Harry Brown had not yet won his 
greatest triumph. He was invited to deliver the oration in 
Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, on the one hundredth anniversary 
of the meeting of Congress of 1774. Of this address the "Phila- 
delphia Press" said, "As the exercises continued, and the ora- 
tion of the day was being delivered, the whole aspect of the 
assembly changed. Those there seated were no longer men of 
business, but sons of liberty, who had suddenly realized the 
grandeur of their birthright. The thrilling oration fanned into 
a white-heat the long-smothered embers of patriotism, until the 
air seemed heavy with the magnetic influence of deep emotion 
and mental excitement. The scene was one never to be for- 
gotten. Old men whose years overlapped the nineties stood 
erect with a renewed youth, and waved their hats in the air, and 
the young men, to whom the word liberty had long been so 
familiar as to have become an empty sound, seemed suddenly 
to realize the deep significance of the term, and to long for some 
way of proving their devotion to a government which had cost 
such precious blood to gain." 

His next oratorical triumph was won at the old Quaker town 
of Burlington, New Jersey, December 6, 1877, on the occasion 
of its two hundredth anniversary of its formation. The style 
of this oration, while finished, was not highly rhetorical. It was 
in quaint good taste, as befitting the peaceful old Quaker town 
about which its loving memories linger. 

Near the beginning of the last year of his life Mr. Brown had 
been asked to deliver an oration on the anniversary of the evac- 



102 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

uation of Valley Forge. The delivery of this oration on June 
19, 1878, was the last and most brilliant of Mr. Brown's public 
efforts. From this celebration Mr. Brown went home, it might 
be hterally said, to die. Low in strength, and using up all his 
physical energy he had in speaking, he contracted a fever at or 
about the time of the celebration. For eight weeks there was a 
succession of hopes and fears. He died August 21, 1878, at the 
age of thirty-three years. 

As AN Orator 

''Henry Armitt Brown, though a man of uncommonly varied 
gifts was a born orator." 

"With the exception of Patrick Henry, Henry Clay, and Daniel 
Webster, no speaker in the land ever had moments of completer 
triumphs than he over the mind and feelings of his hearers." 

"He was not unlike Edmund Burke, ever espousing the cause 
of justice, and had he lived he would have ranked with that 
eminent essayist and statesman." 

His Methods 

"He always read in advance of his writing, and would search 
indefatigably in any direction for matter bearing upon the 
subject. He went to first causes. He spared himself no pains. 
The result was something of rare and permanent value. He 
liked to read what he had collected to his wife or to a friend, and 
their interest would stimulate him, and, while talking it over, 
his mind would become thoroughly aroused. The committing 
to memory never seemed to give him the least uneasiness, and 
one day usually sufficed for that, no matter how much matter 
there was. He thus filled his mind with the subject and spoke, 
though from memory, with the inspiration of the theme." 

His Style 
"Not in a massive style, like Bright's oratory, nor in cumula- 
tive epithet, like Sumner's, nor in epigrammatic brilliancy, like 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 103 

Beaconsfield's, nor in broad philosophic discussion, Hke Glad- 
stone's, nor in the magnificent marshalling of fact and phrase, 
like Macaulay's, nor in the coarse, passionate vigor, like O'Con- 
nell's. He did not have all forces combined — who does? His 
speech was more like that of the great French orators, finished 
and classic, w't>.out display of violence or undisciplined imagina- 
tion. He hL-^ an elegance of style not incompatible with the 
highest vigor. He won by a forceful but steady pressure." 

As A Man Among Men 

"Young, gifted, vigorous, above all, pure, such was Henry 
Armitt Brown." 

''Whatever he undertook he did to some purpose. As a 
politician, he was of the highest stamp; as an orator, he had al- 
ready ranked among the greatest; as a writer, he was forceful, 
graceful, and scholarly; as a private gentleman, he was modest 
and unassuming, courteous and chivalric — ever forgetful of self 
and thoughtful of others." 

"Though he labored in different fields, like Burns and Byron, 
his young life ended ere it had scarcely begun, but, to his per- 
petual glory be it said, the sun of his life set without a cloud 
upon it." 

"Politics did not lower in him the standard of high moij,lity 
and honor. His ambition was founded upon his patriotism. 
Nothing could have tempted his integrity, and no partisanship 
could have made him subservient to mean or narrow purposes. 
How safe would be the Republic, and how glorious its destiny, 
were all its sons like him!" 



II. THE PLACE— VALLEY FORGE ^ 

"The characteristic event of the day and hour, which wit- 
nessed the occupation of these hills by the Continental army, 
presents the immortal Washington as conspicuously devoted to 

^ Selections from an Historical Address by Col. Theo. W. Bean. 



104 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

the claims of humanity as he was to the more imperative de- 
mands of country. 

''Historians have uniformly signalized the arrival of the 
army on this ground as coincident with the famous order of the 
Commander-in-Chief, dated 'Headquarters on the Schuylkill, 
Dec. 17, 1777,' congratulating his troops upon the close of cam- 
paign, the results accomplished, the heroic conduct of officers 
and the endurance of men, counseling them to continue in 
fortitude and patience, assuring his followers that, 'while in 
some instances he had unfortunately failed, that, upon the whole, 
heaven had smiled upon their army and crowned them with 
success; that the end of their warfare was Independence, Liberty, 
and Peace, and the hope of securing these blessings for them- 
selves and their posterity demanded a continuance of the struggle 
at every hazard.' 

"This was the pleasing side of the picture set in the gilded 
framework of war's seducing blandishments and panoplied with 
its field-day glories. But there was another — the shoeless 
soldiers, the frozen ground, the cheerless hills, the lowering 
leaden sky that arched them ove: with gloom. These were the 
sorrowing and mute witnesses to the true scene of the arrival, 
and which the artist has thus far failed to place upon canvas. 
We are not, however, wanting the pen picture. I give it in the 
language of Mr. George Washington Parke Custis. The brigades 
had gone into position upon the line of defence indicated by the 
skilful officer who drew it. The pitiless winter winds swept the 
hills and valley with unceasing fury, as the December sun sank 
into banks of snow-clouds, presaging the coming storm. The 
poverty of supplies in food and raiment was bitterly and pro- 
fanely bewailed by shivering unpaid officers and half-naked 
men, as they crowded around the comfortless camp-fire of the 
bivouac, when suddenly the appearance of the Horse Guard 
announced the approach of the Commander-in-Chief. The 
officer commanding the detachment, choosing the most favorable 
ground, paraded his men to pay their General the honors of a 
passing salute. As Washington rode slowly up, he was observed 



BIOGRAPHICAL 8KETCK i05 

to be eyeing very earnestly something that attracted his atten- 
tion on the frozen surface of the road. Having returned the 
salute with that native grace and dignified manner that won the 
admiration of the soldiers of the Revolution, the Chief reined in 
his charger, and ordering the commanding officer to his side, 
addressed him as follows: /'How comes it, sir, that I have 
tracked the march of your troops by the blood-stains of their 
feet upon the frozen ground?y Were there no shoes in the com- 
missary's stores that this sad spectacle is to be seen along the 
public highway?' The officer replied : ' Your Excellency may rest 
assured that this sight is as painful to my feelings as it can be 
to yours, but there is no remedy within our reach. When shoes 
were issued, the different regiments were served in turn; it was our 
misfortune to be among the last to be served, and the stores be- 
came exhausted before we could obtain even the smallest supply.' 

"The General was observed to be deeply affected by his 
officer's description of the soldiers' privations and sufferings. 
His compressed lips, the heaving of his manly chest, betokened 
the powerful emotions that were struggling in his bosom, when, 
turning toward the troops, with a voice tremulous, yet kindly, 
he exclaimed,/ 'poor fellows!'^/ Then giving rein to his horse he 
rode rapidly away. 

"The purpose of the Commander-in-Chief in taking position 
at Valley Forge was to give the greatest measure of protection 
possible to the state, and to circumscribe the operations of 
General Howe within limits that would seriously affect his 
source of supply. To this end, his line was admirably drawn. 
On the west side of the Schuylkill he extended his right flank to 
Wilmington, at which point he stationed General Smallwood, with 
his brigade of infantry, covering the long interval with Morgan's 
rifle corps and the squadron of cavalry under Major Harry Lee. 

"On the east side of the river he occupied as far as White- 
marsh, placing General Armstrong with a brigade of Pennsyl- 
vania militia, so as to cover the principal roads converging 
at that point; the cavalry, under Major Jameson and Captain 
McClane, guarded the highways in the direction of Barren and 



106 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

Chestnut Hills; and, to still further prevent incursions of the 
enemy northward from Philadelphia, he directed General Pulaski, 
who was in command of the brigade of cavalry, to go into camp 
at Trenton, New Jersey. 

''The line of defence from the west shore of the Schuylkill 
River to the base of Mount Joy, at the angle of Valley Creek, 
occupied commanding ground, and the earthworks and fortifica- 
tions erected under the direction of General Du Portail were ex- 
tensive in character and skilfully constructed. The interior 
line of works and abatis were semicircular in form, crossing from 
north to south, with one star and two square forts, from which 
the army could have successfully covered a retreat westward 
had such a movement become necessary. The interior lines, 
with the remains of the two square forts, are still discernible, and 
constitute the only landmarks which the crumbling hand of time 
has left to guide the pilgrim over these hills. Fortunately for 
the living of to-day, who have joined us in these commemora- 
tive services, and thousands of our countrymen who, though 
absent, have manifested great interest in the occasion, we are 
not without reliable data by which we may indicate with accur- 
acy the position of the fourteen brigades of Continental troops 
encamped wuhin the fortified linesj representing a maximum of 
seventeen thousand men, but reduced by sickness and the paucity 
of supplies to the pitiable number of five thousand and twelve 
effectives. / 

"The extreme right of the line, commanding the approaches 
from the southwest, was held by Brigadier-General Charles 
Scott, of Virginia, upon whose left Brigadier-General Anthony 
Wayne, commanding the Pennsylvania line, was placed; then in 
succession from right to left came the brigades of General Enoch 
Poor, of Massachusetts, General John Glover, of Massachusetts, 
General Ebenezer Lamed, General John Patterson, of Massa- 
chusetts, General George Weedon, of Virginia, who connected 
with General Peter Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania, holding the 
extreme left of the line, resting on the Schuylkill at a point 
where the village of Port Kennedy is now located. 



108 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

"The second or supporting line of troops were encamped im- 
mediately in front of the interior line of earthworks, still dis- 
cernible. Brigadier-General William Woodford, of Virginia, 
held the right, covering the corps of Major-General Henry Knox's 
artillery, located a short distance to the left and rear; to the 
left of Woodford, successively, the brigades of General William 
Maxwell, of New Jersey, General Thomas Conway, of Irish birth, 
General Jedediah Huntington, of Connecticut, connecting with 
the brigade of General James Varnum, of Massachusetts; on 
the extreme left, covering the bridge over the Schuylkill River, 
built by General Sullivan, Brigadier-General Lachlan Mcintosh, 
of Scottish birth, a Georgian by adoption, with the remaining 
brigade, was encamped in the rear of the second line of intrench- 
ments, a short distance east of the Potts Mansion, occupied by 
the Commander-in-Chief; near by and to the left of Mcintosh, 
Washington's body-guard, commanded by Major Gibbs, of Rhode 
Island, was encamped; still farther to the west, and on the op- 
posite side of the Valley Creek, the artificers of the army were 
quartered in huts with large log buildings for workshops. 

''The bake-house, used for the double purpose of furnishing 
food for the army, and as a place for holding courts-martial, 
was located within a few yards of these workshops. By the 
20th of December the army was in position as indicated, and the 
order to construct huts for the winter was issued. Soldiers 
became axemen from necessity; before them fell the forest, and 
hundreds of log houses grew as by magic. 

Major-Generals Lafayette, DeKalb, and Sterling estabhshed 
their headquarters for the winter with the army, and were al- 
ternately assigned to important field and detached duty during 
the winter. Major-General Charles Lee, at the time a prisoner of 
war, was subsequently ' ^changed for General Prescott and re- 
turned to this camp, together with Vlajor-General Thomas 
Mifflin, of Pennsylvania, who had been. Absent some months. 

"The following staff officers established their headquarters 
near the Potts Mansion: Major-General Nathaniel Greene, of 
Rhode Island, Quartermaster-General of the Army; Major- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 109 

General Baron Steuben, Inspector-General; Brigadier-General 
Du Portail, Chief Engineer ; Colonel Timothy Pickering, Adjutant- 
General, and Colonel Alexander Hamilton, Aide-de-Camp. 
Long before the works for defence were completed or the huts 
that were to shelter the army were finished, the bitter cry of 
hunger, from thousands of brave and heroic men, reached the 
ears and heart of Washington. He appealed in vain to the 
Government for supplies. The hasty removal of Congress from 
Philadelphia to Lancaster, thence to York, had its disorganizing 
effects upon all the departments, especially upon those of the 
Quartermaster and Commissary. 

"To overcome in some measure the pressing necessity which 
threatened the dissolution of his army, as early as the 20th of 
December, 1777, Washington issued the following order: 'By 
virtue of the power and direction especially given, I hereby enjoin 
and require all persons residing within seventy miles of my 
headquarters to thresh one-half of their grain by the first day of 
M-arch next ensuing, on pain in case of failure, of having all, that 
shall remain in sheaves, after the period above mentioned, seized 
by the Commissaries and Quartermaster of the army and paid 
for as straw.' In the absence of blankets, the want of straw, as 
well as grain, was sorely felt by the army; farmers in the imme- 
diate vicinity had suffered great loss by the presence of both 
armies in their midst. Under these circumstances it was not 
surprising that those who had stowed away the grain and hay 
that was relied upon to keep body and soul together for another 
year were tardy in threshing it out. The order of the Com- 
mander-in-Chief went direct to the vital point. Tradition says 
that, throughout the length and breadth of Washington's seventy 
miles, could be heard from morn till night two or three threshers 
on every barn-floor." 

Dr. Thatcher, in his private journal, states, that ''it was with 
the greatest difficulty that men enough could be found in a fit 
condition to discharge the military camp duties from aay to day, 
and for this purpose those who were naked borrowed of those 
more fortunate in having covering for their bodies and shoes for 



110 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

their feet. Yet amidst the sufferings and privations endured 
by these devoted troops week after week and month after month, 
pelted by the storms of one of the severest winters ever known 
in this region, the love of country, the hope of victory, and an 
abiding confidence in their great leader sustained them until, in 
the Providence of God, the cause found an ally, whose offices 
of friendship, long and ardently hoped for by the chivalrous 
Lafayette, was finally assured by the diplomacy of our own 
glorious Franklin." 

Passing from the gloom of the command we are met with the 
perils of the Commander. 

The surrender of Burgoyne on the Hudson, due primarily to 
the comprehensive direction of Washington, successfully carried 
into execution by Major-General Philip Schuyler, who, in an evil 
hour, was superseded by Major-General Horatio Gates, giving to 
the latter officer easy honors and bringing to his standard the 
disaffected spirits of the army, as it did the impatient and fawn- 
ing politicians of the period. The victory of Gates at Saratoga 
was the inevitable result of conditions precedent to his assuming 
command in that department, a fact well understood by his 
contemporaries at the time; and it would seem that a proper 
respect for the properties of his profession, a due regard for 
the troops that served him and the superior officers in merit and 
rank, who made his triumph a possibility, should have induced 
subsequent conduct upon his part consistent with the highest 
interest of his country. But it was not so. Assuming honors 
he never merited and powers never conferred upon him, he 
covertly sought to destroy personal attachments and inspire 
public distrust in his Commander-in-Chief. 

"Generals Conway and Mifflin, with others of less importance, 
served his base purpose only too well, and for a time the cabal 
worked unseen mischief in the attempted alienation of friends 
and disorganization of the army, which ultimately recoiled upon 
those most conspicuously connected with the movement, leaving 
the character of him they thought to asperse brighter and purer 
and nobler than ever before. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 111 

"When Washington was apprised of faction by his personal 
friend, Mr. Laurens, then President of Congress, he repUed with 
a frankness which, while it disclosed a wounded spirit, breathed 
in every line and sentence his unqualified attachment to the cause 
and his unselfish love of country. 

"The secret intrigues within the army, the violent criticism 
of partisans in the civil service, the hasty appointment of a new 
Board of War, consisting first of Major-General Thomas Mifflin, 
Col. Timothy Pickering, and Col. Robert H. Harrison enlarged, 
on the 17th of November, 1777, by the addition of Mr. Francis 
Dana and J. B. Smith, and again on the 27th by the further 
appointment of General Gates, Joseph Trumbull, and Richard 
Peters, Gates being chosen chairman, and as thus constituted, 
evidently in sympathy with the cabal, these circumstances 
promptly induced a correspondence by Washington with Congress 
which resulted in the appointment of a committee from that 
body, consisting of Mr. Francis Dana, General Joseph Reed, 
Nathan Folsom, Charles Carroll, and Gouverneur M. Morris, 
to visit the camp at Valley Forge. This committee remained in 
camp for several weeks and finally drafted a report embodying 
suggestions generally accredited to the foresight, sagacity, and 
wisdom of Washington. Their labor was productive of the best 
results. They restored public confidence and hastened the work of 
the future by conceding to the Commander-in-Chief the exercise of 
those powers originally contemplated by the terms of his com- 
mission. 

"With the explosion of the Conway Cabal, the restoration of 
public confidence by the patriotic committee of Congress, the 
induction of Greene into the department of supplies, the assign- 
ment of Steuben to the task of organizing and disciplining the 
army, a burden was lifted from the shoulders of Washington, who, 
as he calmly surveyed the future, supported by the presence and 
fidelity of Knox and Sterling, of Hamilton and Pickering and 
Lafayette, felt that the crisis of his life and country had been 
reached and passed, and the midnight gloom of the Revolution 
was broken." 



112 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

III. THE OCCASION— THE VALLEY FORGE CEN- 
TENNIAL CELEBRATION 

On the 19th of December, 1777, at the close of an unsuccess- 
ful campaign, the patriot army of the Revolution, foot-sore and 
weary, encamped upon the hills at Valley Forge. In the rude 
huts of the dreary encampment was born the unconquerable 
will, the courage never to submit or yield, that proved to England 
and the world that, although the country might be overrun 
with British soldiers, the people could not be subdued. During 
those weary months the Continental army received the training 
and discipline which afterward enabled it to meet the soldiers 
and mercenaries of Great Britain in equal fight, without ever 
suffering a defeat. Therefore, on that holy ground, hallowed by 
hunger and cold, disease and destitution, on the 19th day of 
June, 1878, which marked the one hundredth anniversary of the 
departure of the army of the Revolution from winter quarters 
from Valley Forge, fifty thousand people met in gratitude to 
commemorate a fortitude in camp superior to courage in battle, 
a steadfastness more powerful than enthusiasm, and a devotion 
to a cause and chieftain utterly forgetful of self. 

Let us indulge the hope that Valley Forge will ever remain a 
monument to the loyalty and devotion of this brave band of 
patriots who, in cold and hunger, watched from those sacred hills 
for the coming of the dawn of a better day, and to which the 
people of our beloved land may ever turn to learn the lesson of 
loyalty and devotion to country. 

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS 

1. What is an oration? 

2. Name the parts of an oration and the purposes of each. 

3. Name five American orators in the order of their standing. 

4. What did the great English victory at Waterloo accom- 
plish? 

5. Why was Washington called the American Fabius? 



SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS 113 

6. What was the turning point in the Revolutionary struggle? 

7. Enumerate the services of Franklin for his country's 
cause. 

8. Name the soldiers of Valley Forge who were destined to 
become presidents of the United States. 

9. Which soldier at Valley Forge was destined to become the 
most illustrious judge of the Supreme Court of the United States? 
to announce a doctrine that has kept the American continent 
free from touch of European politics? to debase his talents and 
afterward to be tried for treason? 

10. Name some of the burdens that Washington was called 
upon to bear while at Valley Forge. 

11. Give reasons why Valley Forge should be regarded as 
holy ground. 

12. Who said that "fighting will be preferable to starving"? 

13. Why was Valley Forge chosen for the winter e'^campment 
in preference to Trenton or Wilmington? 

14. Who characterized Valley Forge as a ''wilderness"? 

15. Why was the close of 1777 the gloomiest period of the 
Revolution? 

16. Who was President of the Continental Congress while 
Washington's army was at Valley Forge? 

17. Give an account of the "Conway Cabal." 

18. What was Washington's opinion of the soldiers of Valley 
Forge? 

19. Whom did Mr. Brown characterize as the "Knight of the 
Order of Fidelity"? 

20. What was the state of feeling in Europe about the war in 
the colonies? 

21. Why was France interested in the American struggle? 

22. Did the American Revolution have any bearing on the 
French Revolution? 

23. What were the results with the treaty with France? 

24. Why was it a fortunate thing for the Americans that 
between her and her nearest European neighbor lay a thousand 
leagues of sea? 



114 SUG GESTI VE Q UESTIONS 

25. Who was the Virginian Scott? 

26. Who doffed his parson's gown for the uniform of a brig- 
adier-general in the Continental army? 

27. Locate the following places: Swedes' Ford, Whitemarsh, 
York, Chester, Monmouth, Eutaw, Paoli, Phoenixville, and the 
Trappe. 

28. Who was Dr. Waldo? 

29. Name the fifteen decisive battles of the world. 



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